Discourse communities are groups of people that can connect with similar interests. They share common goals, values, and strive to achieve alike communication experiences and exercises. Three communities that I am a part of are sports, music, and the business realm. All three of these groups are huge aspects of different parts of my life.
Basketball was the first sport I fell in love with. I grew up watching the NBA and eventually became obsessed; I even named my cat after an NBA player when I was ten years old. My first discourse community I was a part of was basketball. I started playing on a team when I was eight years old, but it was co-ed and I was the only girl. I was never passed the ball and I became very discouraged, and I never wanted to touch a basketball again. My parents convinced me to play for a few more years on a different team and overtime, my skillset began to grow and strengthen. I played on the basketball team for all four years of high school. I struggled mentally and physically all four years and heavily considered quitting every season. I thought I lost my passion for basketball. Not everyone on the team was at the same skill level and since I was the team captain for three of the four years, my coach relied on me to be a leader. I had a tight connection with this team even if it was just on the court, and I knew it would be somewhat selfish for me to give up on the team especially halfway through my senior year. Instead of giving up so easily, I figured out a new plan. I held extra team practices during school hours without my coach knowing. I created new plays that were simple enough for the girls who were newer to this sport to understand but yet still effective enough to help the team as a whole grow. I watched our footage and our opponents footage and wrote down notes specific to each player on our team to help them advance. This dedication, time, and effort paid off, leading us to win CIF championships. I am glad I never quit and I am grateful that my team trusted me as much as I trusted them. After my final basketball season, I gained a larger love for all sports, and most recently it being Mixed Martial Arts.
Music has always been a huge part of my household growing up. I learned to love all genres and appreciate the hard work and effort behind it. Many people enjoy listening to music because they can connect with it emotionally. I started my first guitar class when I was ten years old and learned basic fundamentals. From 6th to 8th grade, I was in band and I played the clarinet. I learned how to read notes and eventually became really knowledgeable on music. After middle school, I started playing the guitar again and I self taught myself more advanced songs on the guitar. In my junior year of high school, I joined a guitar class for an art credit. The teacher noticed that my skill set was more advanced than the rest of the class so he asked me to help other students. That same year, I made a lot of friends who were in bands. I went to many of their shows to support them, and I made new friends every time. I appreciated finding people to connect with through music even though I was not in a band myself. My diverse taste in music allowed me to talk, promote my friends bands to new people, and get to know so many new unique local artists who advanced my knowledge in music. Without realizing it initially, this skill I gained to meet new groups of people every week and teach and learn from one another was setting me up correctly for my college major.
My third discourse community that I am a part of is the business community. I am a marketing major and I realized very quickly that networking is a huge key part of the business world. In high school when I was going out every weekend to band shows and learning new information about music and introducing people I knew to each other to help their bands grow, that was networking. In college it has become normalized in my major to ask for someone’s LinkedIn instead of their Instagram. The first week of second semester of college, I went up to everyone I recognized from my first semester classes even if I never talked to them before. This helped me create a larger group of people for me to study with or ask help from. After the lack of socializing I did within my first semester classes, I noticed that it was very hurtful to my academic growth. Now I try to have at least one person in each of my classes that I can communicate with if I ever need help and I would be there to aid that person as well.
All three of these discourse communities actually connect with one another. Basketball taught me leadership, confidence, and being able to communicate. I was able to carry those social skills into the music world to help promote my friends’ bands. Being able to talk to random people and inform them on music became a helpful skill when I entered college. I can use that networking skill to find connections within my major and the business community.
