Discussion Board Three wk. 6 By Walter Ghose

Discussion Board Three wk. 6

By Walter Ghose

 

Part One:

 

·      Ordinary world: Alex is a 9^th grader student who goes to Hopkins High school, who is neither very popular nor unpopular. Alex hopes to be part of the basketball team.  The basketball team are the cool kids.  Alex is gay, but not openly, and very fearful about being discovered.

·      Call to Adventure: Alex sees another student named Nasser Sharif being bullied in School. Nasser had polio, which makes his muscles weak and that’s why the three players pick on him. Because he is slow and awkward.  The kids also tease him about being gay, though it is not clear that he is.

·      Refusal of the Call: Alex feels sorry for Nasser lacks confidence in himself and does not want to be seen as sticking up for a “gay kid”. 

·      Meeting the Mentor: Alex has a chat about the situation with his brother Kyle, who tells him that if he doesn’t stick up to bullies or take chances, he’ll just be miserable.

·      Crossing the First Threshold: The day, after heeding the advice from his brother, Alex finally stands up against the bullies and defends Nasser. This event occurs just before Alex tries out for the team.

·      Test, Allies, Enemies: Alex arrives at the gym where the new players get tested to see if they will make the team and there is only one opening left. He must race around the lap track three times, then he must beat the other opponents to the top of the rock-climbing wall.  Finally Alex must demonstrate his skills on the court.

·      Approach to the Inmost cave: Alex begins racing against Samuel, one of the bullies who is really determined to join the team. As the two race, Samuel seems to be getting a head start on Alex, but Alex persists.

·      Supreme Ordeal: Soon Alex catches up with Samuel and they both win the race, now they must race each other on the rock climbing wall. Here Alex starts climbing the wall, but loses grip on one of the rocks and nearly falls. 

·      Reward: Alex makes the team, but will he be accepted by the other players?

·      The Road Back: Alex wonders if he has the courage to befriend Nasser.

·      Resurrection: Alex is on the team, but is friends with Nasser too, though he is not very open about the friendship. 

·      Return with the Elixir: Nasser is very grateful to Alex. He invites him over to his house for the weekend to watch football and have dinner with Nasser’s family, to which Alex accepts.

Part Two:

 

 

On the fifth of November, in the town of Minnetonka, MN, the wind was howling wild like a wolf the trees were shaking off the last of their leaves and the air felt cooler and cooler by the hour. As the weather was become more overbearing a school bus was driving down Hopkins Crossroads and entering on Ceder Lake Rd. For the students on the bus were Hopkins High School students and they were getting ready for another big week of school. One of these student that was not very fond of being in such a big environment was Alex Brown. He was one of those kids who was not into school, but it was not due to the fact that he did not like learning, but that he was actually gay.

 

Alex never actually knew he was gay until about a year earlier, when going to West Junior high. On one of these afternoons after showering, Alex went into the swimming pool and began lapping, along with several other boys. As there were lapping back and forth to both sides of the pool, Alex started to get distracted by some of the other boys on the side of his metal swimming bars. So distracted that he actually hit his head on the bars and had to call quits for swimming. At the time, Alex did not know what caused him to focus, but he knew it had something to do with seeing some of the other boys differently.

 

Alex’s distraction came once again later on that weekend when he and his Dad were going to Lifetime. While changing into his gym shorts and shirt in the locker room, Alex started to drift out of reality when he saw one man shirtless and could not take his eyes off him. Then, he saw another man wrapped only on the waist down with a towel. Alex kept on staring at the man as he began removing his towel. But then he was bumped into by one of the Lifetime workers trying to push a basket of dirty towels. When Alex got back into the real world, he swiftly rushed out of the locker room.

 

What had gotten into Alex that day, he did not know. But there was an uneasy feeling in him from then on. After finishing work out at the gym, Alex walked back down to the locker room where he started to change. As he was changing, he noticed several other men dropping down their clothes and putting on more comfortable clothes while Alex looked on. After staring for about a minute, the man quickly turned to face Alex and asked him “Excuse me young man, can I help you?” Alex while trying to keep his eyes on the man’s face replied “Um, no, no. I’m good. Just not quite myself lately.” The man looked at Alex with a awkward face, then said, “Okay then, carry on.”

As soon as he got home, Alex sat on his bed and began sobbing in a very shameful way. It was quite clear at that point he knew he was gay. And he be stuck with this affect for the rest of his life. From there on Alex was afraid of going to school and connecting with other students.

 

Now that Alex was in the 9^th grade, he was in for facing an even bigger crowd of students, and with more students came more temptation and nervousness.

 

Finally getting out of the bus, Alex saw another boy about his drop several of his binders. Seeing as how nobody else offered to assist the poor kid, Alex decided to help the boy out. “Hey there, I’m Alex Brown” he said while reaching his hand out to shake the boys’ hand. “Nasser!” said the boy “Nasser Sharif.” As the two looked at each other for some time, the school bell rang, implying that classes were starting. With that Alex said “see you around” to Nasser and went off to his Geography class.

 

As Alex walked through the halls of the school, he noticed several boys in basketball jerseys rushing off to the gym for practice. Alex peeked through the glass window door to the gym and was amazed at how skilled those boys were. The way they dribbled the ball, and passed it to each other and scoring points. Alex witnessed other people in the gym watching the boys and admiring them and he thought, if only that was me out there. After hearing the final school bell ring, Alex immediately rushed to class, but hoped to one day be more popular than he is now.