I chose to observe the school fitness gym. I’ve been a fan of workouts since high school, I enjoy the process of building up our body and staying consistent not only at the gym but in other things. As the campus was reopened for more in-person classes, there are more people who go to the school gym, during the pandemic, indoor activities were challenged, people are limited in their own houses, as to make missing outdoor exercises, and people started to be more aware of their health after the pandemic, a study shown, doing a little exercise each week is enough to help one stay healthy and strong than most people, personally think to make exercise as part of the life can benefit one a lot, not just to keep them in a good shape, stay positive and healthy, but just to be consistent in working out impact how we can be consistent on many other things, just to have a gym on campus and can have access after a hard study day is wonderful.

I was surprised by how many people were in the gym, to train in the gym is never as easy as just sitting talking to friends, or actually doing something fun, but in the gym,  everything seems very organized, after putting stuff in the locker, I get to type my information on the laptop and show my vaccinations cards for records, compare to my last memories, this place crowed, not only people who already in good shape, working on what they have to do, also starter struggling with instructions of how to begin, on my 60 minutes work out, besides doing my thing, on my break I get to observe people. What grabbed my attention is these two guys that were right next to me,  by pausing my music, I get to hear their conversation about their first time being in an official gym, their position shows how unfamiliar they are with this equipment, it seems a little bit awkward, among some of the expert and fitness lovers, just be a novice doesn’t look good, I’m wondering what compels them to come to this place before I decide to say anything, another guy came over, demonstrated the correct way of doing it. As that’s where we all come from, people tend to have more patient, that was how I get into this field, as a kid saw adults in the park who is willing to help me make the first move, I’ve also seen elder folks in this event, up to grey-haired, down to young middle ages, this place is accommodating people in different ages, gender, but having the same hobbies.

 I realized there are a lot of people who don’t wear masks during their training, perhaps some of them will put the mask on during their break, but from what I saw, most people just expose their face to the air, oxygen is an important part of training, mask made this process much harder, especially when it’s soaked by sweat, it’s just similar to cove up by wet towel, air can barely go through, though people are staying in a good distance, they automatically follow the basic rule, respect each other, except a few who is on their phone longer then they may focus on equipment, they are always having a longer break then everyone else, the gym is not a good place to text, sitting on the equipment, to pretend work hard, just being in the place, give them a sense of putting efforts, but however it does not help.

It wasn’t a very special visit or event, since I go to the gym once two days, but look at the gym activity deeper, rather than just concentrating and focusing on what I have to do, there are also a lot of things that happened inside the gym, to share some of the ideas and phenomenons that are occurring in the gym as an insider, I realized how often I ignore things that happen not conspicuous and small can have a much deeper meaning when breaking into the cause and reasoning. There was never a lack of evidence and details, just a lack of people’s attention with more concentration. During the observation process, I end up spending some time just relaxing and watching people do what they have to do, my phone was silent, so I didn’t get interacted, the phone had prevented us see the great part of our world.

Reflection

This assignment is very thoughtful and engaging, I did spend some time figuring out what to write. My topic switched from game to fitness exercise, I feel that I have a stronger relationship between me and my story of exercise, rather than playing games, it became a habit of me, and changed me entirely, though I was into this field since I was younger, I know there are still so much to be explored. I believe writing something intriguing would help the process. Through this essay, I can view it as an expansion of my personal artifact essay, the style and process are similar, I have to look deeper and deeper, to explore small details I’ve always ignored, so I wrote the essay more like a science report, with descriptions and interpreting what is happening, I was trying to make my words more detail, be able to fully express my thoughts. In this assignment, I was able to “Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.” As it’s getting close to the end of the semester, all of sudden the amount of work is increased, I wasn’t clear with my first draft, my partner found a bunch of my grammar mistakes, and also by looking at classmate’s work, I can stay on the direction towards negotiating my writing goals, introduce the events and provide information such as group, location, rituals, with my true experiences, it was quite challenging to focus on to achieve my academic goal while thinking all I was doing is just to complete the assignment, rather than improve myself.