Week 13-Posting 13

Joining the fieldsite that I am researching, the fitness room, was the best decision I have ever made.  It wasn't even a phase in my mind to be an insider to this subculture until my best friend had died at the age of 16 of a heart attack from unhealthy lifestyles.  It's pretty sad that it took me to lose a very good friend in order to change my life around, but I feel that it has been a tribute that I'm making to him.  For other outsiders to this subculture, some of them haven't exactly gone through what I have to want to join this field.  Many people are either scared or too intimidated to join the fitness room.  "Stereotypes are a nightmare," said Ball State University sophomore Stu Purcell. "I hear about how if you don't know how to do a lift or even give the slightest hint of unsureness, you will be made fun of."  Mr. Purcell is not the only person who feels this way. There are many people who think that there is a high possibility if there self-esteem being ruined.  I, personally, could care less, but I wanted to observe the fitness room while working out to see if I could tell the difference between the insiders and the outsiders.  I asked the employees of the fitness room if I could sit and take observations.  They gave me permission to do so.  Sitting in a chair in the back of the fitness room, with a pad of paper and a pen, I watched as each person came into the fitness room.  I watched the way they looked around the room, whether they had a specific ritual, if they knew where everything was located without the look of unsureness, whether they were with other people or just by themselves.  I obtained many different observations.  This was definitely a successful experiment.