The impact sport had on Pat Conroy

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My Losing Season discusses the influences that seem to deeply affect Pat Conroy. His identity, his very person, seems grounded in experiences with sport, family, place, shame, losing, friendship and community, and more. Given the question, what one thing seems to have the most powerful impact on Pat Conroy? I would say sport does because it coincides with every single one of his influences. Sports teach us many different lessons and give us many memories, but in Pat Conroy’s case sports shape who he is as a human being. Sport has the most powerful impact on Pat Conroy because he feels a sense of homelessness, because he has moved around a lot due to his father being a marine. Pat Conroy feels that his only home is on the basketball court. The court is very important to how sport gives him the most powerful impact because the court allows him to find/form himself, so that he can find his voice/identity. Even though he has moved around a lot, Pat still has influences that shaped him at each and every school he attended. In Orlando, he learned to persevere. When he went to Belmont/SHA, basketball became more serious to him and therefore influenced him. Also, Beaufort High School is where he got closest to home with the English courses, basketball, and the acceptance of the community. In addition, The Citadel influenced or shaped him because he started to get connected with people. Throughout all this moving, though, perhaps the hardest to deal with was his family. In most families, sports are a way to connect with one’s family. In Pat Conroy’s case, sports was not a way to connect with one another. Pat Conroy does not consider what he has is a family because he does not like his father; in fact, he refers to his father as being a bullying and violent father. He is not close to his siblings, and his mother always stands up for the father, they also do not even

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