Hello everyone!!! My name is Adrian
and I am a 26-year-old second generation Cambodian living in the center of
Stockton, California. I am a father of two young boys; my eldest Phillip is 14
years old, while Nathan is turning 12 in a couple of months. I currently work
the graveyard shift in a cold storage warehouse where the hours are from 11:00PM
to 7:00AM. The hours allow me to care and drop off my boys to and from school.
As Phillip continues his freshman year at Edison High School and with my work
hours, I plan to start taking night classes at Delta College this next semester
in criminal justice, with the hope of becoming a corrections officer. I made
the mistake of becoming a father at a young age and feel that a proper
education can open up better opportunities to provide for my children.
Since I
work in cold storage, work is seasonal. My current income is $17,618 a year,
which equates to just under $1,500 a month ($1,468 exactly). Housing and utilities
eats up most of my income at ~$850 a month (more during the hot and cold
seasons). I spend almost $150 on gasoline alone for my truck and even though I
have a valid drivers license, I struggle with deciding if car insurance is
needed when the money can be used for my kids. The rest of my money (~$450) is
spread on necessities such as groceries, minutes for our prepaid cell phones,
and clothes if needed. We do not have health insurance and rely heavily on
Medi-Cal for those needs.
Phillip recently
watched the film the Blind Side and became inspired by the rags to riches story
of Michael Oher. Unfortunately Phillip does not share the passion for football
and leans toward tennis, where he currently made the team for Edison High School.
After seeing the movie he wants to become a professional tennis player like Rafael
Nadal, and feels determined that he too can make it. I was fortunate enough to
supply Phillip with a basic tennis racquet that I picked up at a yard sale.
Luckily the school has a fundraising program to help the team get new polo
shirts and proper tennis shorts. Shoes on the other hand are not Nike or Adidas,
but rather the generic athletic brand at Payless.
Although my
son will have the opportunity to play tennis at a high school level, I question
whether or not his dream of becoming a professional tennis player can be made
to fruition or is he chasing a fairy tale? The American Sporting Dream has
created a grandiose idea that if an athlete dedicates the time and effort, he
or she can become a professional athlete. This skewed belief has created a deeply engrained believe for athletes that they can make it out of the ‘ghetto’ and
into fame and fortune (Dubrow & Adams, 2012). The amount of opportunities for Phillip to receive
additional resources outside what is being offered at his school is difficult. The
question of accessibility becomes problematic given my family’s situation.
With
limited resources, my son first cannot receive the proper training and
equipment needed to become a top tier athlete. The area where we live does not
have a public tennis court to practice in. The city of Stockton suffers from
numerous gangs and being of Cambodian descent, I fear that my son will be
exposed to some of the Asian street gangs that exist in this city (Huff, 2002).
I do not want my children roaming the streets to get access to a public tennis
court. The closest facility is Oak Park Tennis, which is a private club that requires
$40 just to become a member and does not include additional usage charges or even
private lessons (Membership, 2014). Will my son’s with his second hand racquet and
no name brand of athletic apparel hold up in that bourgeois setting? Even if I
can barely afford it, what additional strain will it take on my other son
Nathan as well? I would also be required to drive Phillip there and back greatly
affecting my future commitment to higher education.
Next is the nutritional side of
becoming a better athlete. On a small income, I am not concerned with providing
healthy food options, instead I focus on providing the cheapest and most cost
effective food available. How can I provide the healthy conscious Trader Joe’s
selection when I only can afford bulk blocks of cheese, loaves of white bread, tubs
of peanut butter (with no jelly), and powdered milk? I am not saying that my
son will be given the next equivalent to a Todd Marinovich diet, yet clearly this
is not the nutrition needed for an aspiring professional tennis player. More
money needed to spend is something that would be hard when I am struggling on a
limited income.
Clearly access and inclusivity to
an exclusive sport is the issue. The American dream in sport is a false
allusion that does not take into account of various obstacles that can prevent
a child in excelling in that sport. Although I will do what it takes to keep my
sons physically active, away from the street life, and give them the
opportunity to engage in high school sports, the dream of becoming a
professional tennis player will need to be recognized. Instead I hope that the
same drive and mindset can be applied to high education.
Reference
Dubrow, J. & Adams, J. (2012). Hoop inequalities: race,
class and family structure background and the odds of playing in the National
Basketball Association. International
Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47(1), 43-59.
Farrey, T. (2009). Game on: How the pressure to win at all
costs endangers youth sports, and what parents can do about it. New York, NY:
Random House.
Huff, C.R. (2002). Gangs in America III. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications.
Johnson, T. & Migliaccio, T. (2009). The social
construction of an athlete: Africa American boy’s experience in sport. Western Journal of Black Studies, 33(2),
98-109.
Membership to Stockton tennis club. (2014). Retired March,
21, 2014, from http://www.stocktontennisclub.net/membership.html.
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