Club Soccer

          I attended a private school for high school. The tuition was steep and there was not much diversity among the students. It was a preparatory school with a Monday through Thursday uniform and a blazer, button-down, and skirt uniform for Fridays as well. Every student was expected to own a laptop and bring it to class each day. In my entire grade, about one hundred thirty students total, there was only one African American student.
         The only encounters I had with people of different economic classes was when I played on a club soccer team. Twice a week, I would drive to a local soccer field, situated in a bad part of town, to practice with my team. Almost every other girl on the team went to a public school. Immediately, I noticed several differences between me and them: I drove myself to practice in my own car, a Lexus. Most of them, on the other hand, were driven to practice by their parents in the family car. While my family owned three cars, most of them only had one. Some times, one of my teammates would not show up to practice because she could not afford to pay for gas money. Another girl wore the same ripped-up soccer cleats all year round because she could not afford a new pair. The shoes had holes in the toes and the soles were coming off.
     At first, I felt guilty for what I had and they did not. I felt obligated to lie about my class background so they would not feel ashamed or uncomfortable around me. Now I realize how much it helped shape me as a person. Although the media depicts America as a classless society, as DeMott criticizes, social class is real and needs to be recognized by those with power in society. If I had not played on that team, I would never have seen the socioeconomic differences that existed in my own hometown, and so close to my home. I would have continued to live in my own preparatory, private school bubble where buying clothes and purchasing gas are not daily issues.