Jake Quay
Professor Martins
First Year Writing
12/14/14
Nature Vs Nurture
I am familiar with “Nature over Nurture” and I’ve seen it firsthand. I have seen it in small children who make toys that they want while ignoring the room full of toys they have. I’ve seen it in adopted children taking after birth parents in their interests, weaknesses and strengths, regardless of the surroundings that they were pre-exposed to. It is the nature that radiates who we are no matter what our environment is. It is the nurture that builds our psyche and how we think. It is nature and nurture together that dictates who I am and how I think today.
Nurture, or your environment and the things you are exposed to, can change and mold the way you use the “nature” you were born with. Julie Chevill, author of Minding the Body, observed the Iowa’s woman’s basketball team constantly for two years and could see that “…how basketball players think is due to game rules and cultural expectations that have sanctioned particular patterns of bodily activity.”(Chevill 12). What she means is, the environment each person is surrounded by and the things we are exposed to builds on the mental schemata of each person no matter what their nature is. Basketball players, on and off the field, will think and act differently than those of different backgrounds such as swimmers. Both the swimmer and basketball player could be born and raised in the same household at the same time by the same parents, but the exposure to a basketball environment will shape ones mentality in a far more different way than the one exposed to a swimming environment.
My biological makeup, or “nature” shows itself as a math and science minded, vocabulary moderate, athletically inclined male. Since I was young I could take things apart or help people put things together. My way to solve a math problem was often different that the teacher’s, but I almost always got the right answer. I was an athletic kid, and lucky to be raised in Upstate New York, with grass, and exposure to sports, and parents who supported being active. My surroundings from birth became the nurturer while my nature guided me. Early on, my “nature” led me to lacrosse. With a sport that is fast pasted, exciting, complex, and has room for creativity; there is no surprise I took on lacrosse. Lacrosse ended up being significant to me in many ways, beyond the obvious idea of learning a skill, being part of a team, commitment, and sacrifice. It helped to change the way I think. Lacrosse gave me tools and lessons that I can take with me in life.
At a young age I played lacrosse for the first time and loved it. From then on, I continuously played on club and school teams with the job of face off specialist. Although I had been successful, I was used to teaching myself. I watched other face off specialists, spent time on You Tube, and figured out the mechanics of using my body and my skills to win the face off. It wasn’t text book, but it worked. At the high school level, colleges were interested in me and the recruiting process began. Very fortunately, after some very serious considerations, tense moments, and difficult realizations; I turned down a US military academy appointment and found my home at RIT. Now that I am currently finishing my first semester at college, it seems as though my nature led me down the path I currently travel on. I knew deep down Military School, although an amazing opportunity, was not for me. Nature and nurture do not always bind, but my journey at RIT thus far has forced me to cope with these coexisting forces. These past months since orientation have been most significant in understanding how lacrosse changed me and how I think. Like I said, I am athletic and can envision how things are put together. I can win a face off using my technique, and then I can see the field. I can see the players and anticipate were they will be, when they will get
