Communities

What communities do I belong to?

Hmm, this is a very interesting question. First, it classifies me and defines me. On the other side, it frees me to focus my time and my efforts on what I believe I like. I would say that this is a good thing. I may belong to some communities that I do not like, some that I disagree with. This self inspection afords me a chance to evaluate my choice in the past, and make new decision in the future based on what I think I like or dislike.

So what communities do I belong to? I know that my likes and dislikes have grown and changed over the years. I will often come back and revisit an old "like" but infrequently with it return as a full blown hobby.

I have paticipated in many sports communities. I value myself as an athelete yet I no longer complete in sports. In fact, I rarely participate in sports. In fact, I rarely excercise now. Hmmm, maybe this is not such a strong community for me anymore. While I was once a strong member of the atheletic groups that I have participated in, sometimes "captaining" a given group, I have not gone for a run in over 4 months. I have not gone for a bike ride in over 3 months. My excerise is no longer through teams, I don't even participate in the other commmunities (track, cycling) that once provide me a physical outlet for stress. I should definitely think about returning to some form of group exercise. I think this should mean joining a team of some kind. I doesn't need to be a competitive team, though that is not necessarily a bad idea; I believe I would enjoy the community of atheleticism once again.

There are many other athletic atitivies than cycling and running that I used to frequent. I use play hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball, I tried crew for a season, tenis, skiing, surfing, swimming, kayaking (both white water and sea), and hiking. This is not meant to be a bragging right; in fact it may be just the opposite--I might argue that it is a tribute to my inability to commit to anything for the long term.

I have joined a whole other set of communties centered around arts. While I would not describe myself as creative first and foremost, I enjoy trying. I have participated in community theater, children's theater, and I even participated in two performances in college. These have been some the most welcoming communities that have welcomed me. People seem to come from such different backgrounds into theater. The join in for such different reasons. I really like the challenge of overcoming my fear of taking in front of many people. I also like the conversations, and the friendships that I mading within this community. Another art that I have formed many communities through is music. From the time when I was 4 years old, I took paino lessons. Up until I was ten or eleven, this was in the form of group lessons. Much like Japanese society, the nail that stood out was hammered down. What I dichotomy music can present. The "backup" is usually relagated to a role of perfect reproduction of a script. The soloist(s) burdened with the job of adding creative flare and entertaining the audience. This is clearly a gross oversimplification. Further, I am not in opposition of this model as it works. A group individual performs standing out would likely degrade into a shouting match of musical voices. I play guitars, but my guitar communities have mainly centered around either performing for a friend or two, and practicing with a friend or two. I have performed on a guitar twice in front of "real" audiences. The first time was for a music course I took at school. I took guitar lessons that were subsidized by the school. There were two prerequisite to this program: first, I had to agree to take lessons for two semesters or more. Second, after my second semester, I had to agree to give a "recital that showed my progress." A third and somewhat less important rule was that I could not be a beginner. As I had played guitar for 8 years before my first lesson, I was a compotent hacker on the guitar. My performance was worthy of note for two reasons. First, I has to once more overcome my fear of being the center of attension for a large group. This part I enjoyed very much. Second, I performed guitar with another person for the first time. This was very fun and exciting, but I realized in a very tangible way how my pratice and performance habbits affected another individual. Emily, (incidently a fellow physics major at camp Bobo (or Bowdoin College) had never really played guitar before the start of the semester. This is another reason that rule number 3 above was not very important; it could averted with a "wink", "wink." In my view, this is a _very_ good thing for I believe that anyone willing to put the time in should have the same opportunity to learn music as anyone else. Well, Emily as a newbie was a _lot_ more dilligent in her guitar studies than I was. As it turns out, over the course of one year visit to the community of guitar students at Bowdoin College, Emily surpassed my 8 (and by then almost 9) years of hacking! This both amazing/impressed me and embarassed me. Boy had I slacked off. I wanted to learn some new chords, to work on my technique that while was fairly functional as a home grown solution, was holding me back a bit. Well by the time Emily and I came together to practice for our two "joint" pieces, it was clear to me that she should be taking most of the solos. So I did want I thought the most logical thing at this point: I practiced like hell so I wouldn't look like a goober in front of the whole phsyics department which Emily (proud of her accomplishments) had invited. Incidentally, this included a professor who was quite nearly a concert pianist and another would chose his undergradate school based on where he could find both an excellent educating and had performance degrees in instuments (his was oboe I believe.) The Bowdoin physics depart values dillegence in ones chosen study. So for two weeks, I practiced and practiced really hard. I played my scales and I record myself playing the "background" rhythm part, so I could practice my smallish solo. Was I as good as Emily by this point? Nah. But definity didn't embarass myself. Most importantly, I didn't make a fool of Emily who really put the time in to make something of her oportunity to perform. Which brings me to my final musical class of communities: my voice. My dad's a /really/ good singer. This is in no way a point of contension. I have a good voice, though the "goodness" varies from year to year, month to month, week to week, day to day, and from hour to hour. For the most part I like the way it sounds, but occationally (usually when I use a microphone) it comes out sounding really bad. Anyway, I have sung in choirs, a capella groups, musical performances as well as bunch of other small things. One time, I sang on the street for change with a friend in middle school. This was really more for fun than anything. Some of the best musically experience I have ever had came from singing. I've met some of best friends through vocal communities I have participated in. But like everthing else I have done, I often feel the need to move on. Luckly, many of the groups I have been in so far have had self limiiting terms. It was either a "children's" choir, a highschool choir, a college choir, or an college a capella group. Now that I am in the really world, I have to take these choices of when to go and when to stay into my own hand, I can guide my destiny for the most part. I think that the set of musically communities I now belong to may change in the near future, for better or for worse.

Ah but there are yet other communities that I actively participate in, or have participated in previously. School provides a great venue for forming communities around learning. While the other communities I have described involve education in some smaller ways, their main focus has been some other task. Education in school for me so far has been as much about the process of learn, as much as the material I have learned. This makes for interesting groups including study groups, academic support groups (like groups to help one write a paper), and academic clubs around an interest, not to mention the communities formed in the classroom settings directly. One group communities that I wish I would have been more important to my academic education so far would be online groups. Alas, Bowdoin in my day didn't really embrase an open enough form for news to been taken up by a greater community.

I would like to join the open source community at large, thought I have not yet found my "itch that needs to be scratched." I hope this will come soon. Then, I may find my community to keep me busy for a while!