February 19, 2011

I have decided that I am an athlete.

Now, as a good NFL alumna, I'm going to support this resolution.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "athlete" is defined as, "One who by special training and exercise has acquired great physical strength." Done.


I was swimming yesterday, and one of the things I love about swimming is that I get time to live in my own head. So, I was thinking about my sports. The first thing that comes to mind is that I am a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Then I think of my experience through TKD in judo and hap ki do. I am a martial artist; no way around that. 

But then I started thinking about how often I exercise and what I do. I am very strong: this comes from my martial arts training; but, I also have great endurance (I swam 50 lengths of the pool yesterday and 100 today. If that's not endurance, I don't know what is.). And I love to swim, but I don't consider myself a swimmer. 

I also reflected on the fact that I go to the gym pretty much every day, and that's not an exaggeration. My usual workout is 30-40 minutes on the elliptical doing resistance intervals followed by 25 push-ups and 150 crunches. 


I just never identify myself as an athlete. I think we attribute the label more to people who play and have played competitive sports throughout their lives. I am more of a theater/speech and debate/academic person than an athlete by this definition, and so I identify myself as such. Exhibit A: I, a black belt,  just went to a meeting for a spring show that involves wrestling as a potential way to get my fight fix at school. Yes, things are desperate, but more importantly, the labels that I have been accepting limit the way I think about myself. I need to start thinking of myself as an athlete as well as a student and a performer and a techie and a speechie and a martial artist. I think the way we like to categorize things is usefully exclusive, but also harmfully so, because why can't a person you would identify with theater also be an athlete? And why would we choose one label over another? 


I'm working to accept my membership in more categories, because inclusion is empowering, especially when you can determine whether or not you belong. When I realized that I actually am an athlete, it made me feel quite accomplished (and also kind of annoyed at myself that I hadn't taken the label sooner). I am proud of my physical abilities, but I am also proud of everything else that I do.


I am a student, a theater person, an NFL alumna, a black belt, a martial artist, a reader, a thinker, an athlete, and, most importantly, a person.


Today is awesome because of acceptance.