Bowling to Billiard

      This post is to elaborate and further expand on Howard Becker's claim brought up in his journal entry "Becoming a Marihuana User." Becker pointed out that in order to become a marihuana user, one must meet three requirement in order to gain a long additive behavior. In short, they are: proper method of smoking, know the effects, and enjoying the effects. Notice that here, there's no mention about marihuana and its contents, because there is no addictive substance in marihuana. There are only factors involved around the usage of it. The people you've done it with, the act of doing it, and the rewards of having done it. These are all things done that affects ones sense and generating such behaviors that are addicting and this is addiction isn't only limited to drugs but to everyday ordinary actions/rituals as well.
      Before I was born, my father who was in his mid 20's at the time, has just migrated to the U.S. from Laos with his family and siblings settling in California. There, my dad met some companions in which he was introduced to bowling. He immediately fell for the sport and got addicted to bowling with his new friends in this vast foreign country he knew nothing about. Stemmed off from this addiction, my father would always bowl on any if not every free time he had. Whether that be on the weekends or after getting off from work, he would head to the bowling alley to meet his friends and have a good game of bowling. The act of bowling which is fun and hanging out with friends, he was rewarded with satisfaction and having met those three criteria, Becker would say my father had reached addiction.
      After several years of this behavior, my grandmother finally snapped on my father's behavior of never being home to help her and my mother take care of the kids; after several years of construction to bowling, my father's bowling addiction came to an end. However, that was not the end of an addictive behavior, my dad soon developed the same feelings but for a different sport. That of which is Billiards. Like bowling, my dad and a few of his friends transitioned towards billiard. Hanging with the same group of friends, doing fun things together, and enjoying their time, my dad's addiction to billiard grew bigger if not worse than his attachment to bowling. My father became overwhelmed with this sport, and soon he started aiming higher and not just casual plays. My father started entering tournaments. From tournaments to tournaments, my father aimed higher and higher to which he even participated twice in the annual billiard tournament held in Las Vegas.
      To conclude, I am only able to understand my dad's addiction and his position to bowling and billiard only to an extent, because I find both sports as enjoyable and so does my friends. However, I am not able to cope with my dad's strong feelings towards billiard. To my dad, billiard is part of his identity because he developed himself and his skills in that field for so long. He has made a name for himself there and has many trophies and plaques as proof. He socially constructed his behavior to that of which playing billiard regularly is normal to him. As of now, even my grandmother can't talk him out of this one.