Throughout my life, I have had many formative experiences, some good and some bad. However there are few that stick with me today, dictating nearly everything I do. I am an avid hunter, outdoorsman, and conservationist, consequently one event that I can point to and say “That has had a profound impact on my life!” is the first time I went hunting. Hunting changed nearly my entire outlook on life; I feel more connected to my family, friends, nature, and most especially God.
I have had many experiences with hunting throughout my life, most of which was pest control, killing armadillos for my grandfather, or as a spectator, not a participant. My life really started to make a turnaround when I was 11 years old, when I decided to get my Hunter’s …show more content…
When I reluctantly arrived at the education facility (which happened to be the high school) I was barely paying attention, I expected everyone there to be trailer trash hill people, but what I found instead shocked me. These people, while mostly country folks, were some of the nicest and most caring people I’d ever met. Most of them seemed to be well educated, have jobs, and families, but perhaps what surprised me the most is something that I didn’t understand until I became an avid hunter myself, that is their enormous love, respect, and admiration of nature. With this new found, and confusing revelation at the time, I decided to give the course my best shot and I received my …show more content…
The morning hunts weren’t very successful, any deer we saw I had inadvertently scared off, by lunchtime my spirit was in the dirt. I thought about giving up, but I remembered all of the work I had put into this one thing, I decided to stick it out for a couple more hours. We moved to a new spot where we knew several does were traveling to fairly consistently. We waited and waited to no avail, hardly seeing any wildlife at all besides a few crows. As I was beginning to pack up my bag, I heard a slight crack! I looked up and standing 75 yards in front of me as if it had come out of nowhere was a doe. I got my Dad’s attention, who somehow didn’t see it, although he was looking directly in its direction. He stated it was up to me whether I was going to take it or not and he just wanted to know when to plug his ears, I decided to take the shot. I raised my rifle and lined up my scope, I took a deep breath in, slowly exhaled and pulled the trigger, BANG! The deer dropped dead instantly, it was a quick and painless kill, what every hunter prays for. Taking a living creature's life is not an easy thing and I do not take it lightly, but that moment changed my life
I have had many experiences with hunting throughout my life, most of which was pest control, killing armadillos for my grandfather, or as a spectator, not a participant. My life really started to make a turnaround when I was 11 years old, when I decided to get my Hunter’s …show more content…
When I reluctantly arrived at the education facility (which happened to be the high school) I was barely paying attention, I expected everyone there to be trailer trash hill people, but what I found instead shocked me. These people, while mostly country folks, were some of the nicest and most caring people I’d ever met. Most of them seemed to be well educated, have jobs, and families, but perhaps what surprised me the most is something that I didn’t understand until I became an avid hunter myself, that is their enormous love, respect, and admiration of nature. With this new found, and confusing revelation at the time, I decided to give the course my best shot and I received my …show more content…
The morning hunts weren’t very successful, any deer we saw I had inadvertently scared off, by lunchtime my spirit was in the dirt. I thought about giving up, but I remembered all of the work I had put into this one thing, I decided to stick it out for a couple more hours. We moved to a new spot where we knew several does were traveling to fairly consistently. We waited and waited to no avail, hardly seeing any wildlife at all besides a few crows. As I was beginning to pack up my bag, I heard a slight crack! I looked up and standing 75 yards in front of me as if it had come out of nowhere was a doe. I got my Dad’s attention, who somehow didn’t see it, although he was looking directly in its direction. He stated it was up to me whether I was going to take it or not and he just wanted to know when to plug his ears, I decided to take the shot. I raised my rifle and lined up my scope, I took a deep breath in, slowly exhaled and pulled the trigger, BANG! The deer dropped dead instantly, it was a quick and painless kill, what every hunter prays for. Taking a living creature's life is not an easy thing and I do not take it lightly, but that moment changed my life