At first glance, you might think that a baseball locker room and a classroom operate very similarly since they are both run by the school and operate under the same values. Both are places where people come together, exchange ideas, and prepare for the future. However, once you actually think about it on a deeper level, the locker room and classroom have very different personalities. Biddle’s classroom is focused on learning, knowledge, and reflection, whilst a locker room creates an energetic atmosphere centered around teamwork and competition. While a baseball locker room and a classroom both exist to bring people together and help them get better, the classroom relies on dimmed lighting to create a sense of quietness, whereas the locker room uses its connectedness to enforce teamwork and brotherhood. This ultimately reveals how various spaces are constructed distinctly to meet their own standards, which allow people to act a certain way.

August 11th, 2025. I headed to Carrollton High School for my first day of school. This was the first time I walked into Mr. Biddle’s classroom. I did not think much about the room itself. It was just a classroom. The lighting was dimmer than in other rooms, and it was usually quiet when we worked. The desks were grouped around the room, with no main focal point. The room made me feel like I was there to listen, learn, and work.

When Mr. Biddle got mad or was strict with our class, it felt different from when my coaches got mad. It was because he was my teacher. I saw him as an authority figure in a different way. When he told me to do something, I listened because I knew that was his role and I was his student.

Later in the fall, I started spending more time in Carrollton’s baseball locker room, mainly run by Coach Biano. The locker room has a completely different feeling. It is louder, more energetic, and there is almost always someone talking- like teammates, coaches, or pastors- or music playing. One thing that stands out is how everyone’s locker faces the middle of the room where the Trojan head is. This makes it easy to see and talk to everyone. Instead of feeling spaced out in groups, the room feels connected.

Coach Biano and Coach Hitzeman, my pitching coach, can both be strict with me, but it feels different because I know them more personally. I see them at practices, games, and in the locker room. When they get on me, I understand that they are trying to make me better. We are all together and working toward the same goal.

The difference between these spaces shows how much our surroundings affect us. In Biddle’s classroom, I see myself as a student, and I act like one. In the locker room, I see myself as a teammate, and I act like one. The rooms do not tell me what to do, but they make certain behaviors feel normal.

In the end, these spaces make me feel like I am part of two different things. Biddle’s classroom makes me feel like I am part of a class where I am there to learn. The locker room makes me feel like I am part of a team where everyone has a place. Even though both spaces are at the same school, they have different values. The classroom values focus and learning, while the locker room values teamwork and connection. This shows that the spaces around us can change how we see ourselves and how we act.