The tennis court was the only place I performed more often and harder than anyone else, every day, all the time. Tennis gave me the chance to laser in on the only person I could truly count on—myself. The American Community School had a great library, all dark wood and hidden nooks hemmed in by bookshelves. The magazines at the library were dispatchesfrom the Western world, not the Jordanian versions. Steffi Graf was the young up-and-comer, the underdog, but Navratilova seemed quiet and humble.
Martina Navratilova is an openly gay tennis player. The tennis player is the son of a Jordanian tennis player who tried to kill himself a year ago. The author says he tried to commit suicide because the future he saw ahead of him was unbearable. He says he was inspired by the tennis star’s dedication to physical preparation and discipline. The writer says he is proud to be a proud American tennis player and athlete who has lived as an open homosexual. He writes: “I could be happy and successful in the United States”.
The words freedom and equality called out to me, two things I knew that Jordan could never offer. To be fully myself, I knew, I needed to be all alone. America didn’t just promise anonymity. America promised anonymity. The words “freedom and equality” were good enough for Martina, she says. Martina’s parents wanted her to go to an elite college or no school at all. She chose Brown University, an Ivy-League school on the East Coast, to be free to go wherever she wanted.