performance/occasion

I attended a very small school during my time in high school. I spent a lot of my time playing sports and my favorite of all the sports that I played was basketball. I cannot think of a better example of different performances for different occasions than my experiences playing basketball. I played for my high school and on the AAU circuit so my performances were witnessed and critiqued by a set of different people depending on the occasion.

I played on the varsity team at my high school for four years and basketball was a pretty big deal. Our gym would be full for most of the home games that we had. With that in mind, if I had a great or a horrible game, everyone I knew would know about it. People would be very congratulatory or they would have a different attitude towards me depending on my performance in the games. My performance for my school's team had a lasting impact because I would see those people all week.

During my time playing AAU basketball, the environment was a lot more relaxed. The occasion for those games would never be intimidating because whether I had a great game or a horrible game, I would not have to hear about it during my week at school. No one on my AAU team attended the same school as I did, so people were oblivious to my performances.

In this case, the occasion and my performance had completely contrasting consequences. One case involved me having to deal with it during the week, while the other allowed me to move on from my performances.