Leisure can mean a lot of different things to people depending on where they come from, how they were raised, who you are and what you enjoy. For me, I grew up loving recreation and sports but there was only one thing that I loved more and that was competitive competition. I absolutely loved winning and really enjoyed putting in the effort to better myself at anything that I could compete at. It started at an early age and significantly grew as I got older.
I come from a small village with approximately a population of 1000, I went to the same school from kindergarten to high school graduation, so I grew up with the same classmates, coaches and teachers all my life which had its pros and cons of coarse. The pros of living in this setting and playing sports were that my friends were my teammates and we all got to progress and work together through our years as kids and teenagers. I developed great bonds with my teammates and coaches throughout the years. I had the same coach in hockey, soccer, basketball, volleyball, track n field, ping pong, badminton and cross country. This coach had a huge impact on who I am today and my athletics.
Living in that small community is the reason for many of my positive attributes as a young man and a athlete. I learned many cooperation and bonding skills, work ethic, and I learned I could put my trust in others. Working, playing, and competing with others who had very similar goals and was really beneficial for self-improvement as an athlete and in life. It really taught me that competing with others and trying to improve is not about being better than everyone else at something, but is about the journey within, and to improve yourself day in and day out, being the best you can be.
I can't even imagine growing up in my community with no such thing as leisure, recreation, and sport. What would bring people together? Isn’t that a huge part of belonging to a community, being able to share and enjoy something as a whole. Leisure, recreation, and sport develops a healthy mind and body and gives everyone something to work at, enjoy and progress. I believe living in such a dull world would lead to many less friendships, less community bonds, depression, and not fully learning
how to self- develop. I say this from experience, because I have developed so many friendships and bonds with people I've met just from sport teams, training and recreation. This happens because their are so many different kinds of people with all kinds of different interests and abilities. Leisure, recreation, and sport allows us to be paired up and paired against people everywhere with the same interests and goals with you which is greatly beneficial for us to learn, improve and to be happy!
We would not feel like a community without leisure, recreation, and sport because what would we have that would bring us together and experience as a community? We would have nothing to relate to besides boring jobs and everyday tasks. I have witnessed many times what even just one sports team can do for a community, having played on the local teams all my life I’ve seen huge amounts of fans and supporters who would be at every game and travel to our away games and would be just as excited as us. It felt like they were part of our team, and that is how a community should feel. It gave the community something to share, even as simple as reading the local sport articles in the newspaper every week. I want everyone to be mentally and physically healthy, and by bringing your community together with common interests will allow for more positive energy and will lead to happier and healthier people and communities. This definitely shows that leisure, recreation, and sport are definitely a huge aspect on community building and without it a community would be hopeless.
Family has a great impact on who you are because from your beginning stages of your life you are surrounded by them and look up to what they do, their interests and
