WordPress writing prompt-a-ma-bob
While not recent, But, recent enough, I would have to say archery. I picked this hobby up by accident. I tried it one day and I thought to myself that I kind of liked it. The first times I did archery however not accurate was therapeutic in the matter of there is always room to improve. After that day it was trials and tribulations of finding equipment and learning about archery.
After a trip to Dicks sporting goods, I had picked up a bow (it was terrible) and I learned a fast lesson in archery, Don’t buy the first thing you see, I had picked up a cheaper 1 piece bow. While it had worked I had my wrist slapped by the string worse than a nun with a ruler and the bruises to show.
I knew I was out of my element and I knew something was wrong and no matter the amount of youtube or web instructions you find with a bow its not an exact fix. I decided to find my Yoda of archery, I went to a dedicated archery store and the owner looked at my bow and laughed, I said to him I thought so, He offered me a Greatree bow at a fair deal and set me up with a lesson and the bow. Al the owner(bow yoda) looked at my form and complimented me that I had the form but not the bow, with the Greatree bow I did not slap my wrist and I was elated that I had missed and not felt like someone slapped me with a whip. Al corrected my form and I hit the target, the more I did archery the more I realized that archery in itself is an incredibly meditative state where all your problems slip away and the target becomes your problem.
Between dealing with day to day life and the sometimes insanity of things, I found archery to be a stress releaser. When I had issues where I could not fix something I was working on, I could go outside to with my target and use my bow and focus on the art of archery. I felt confidence with my bow, I also felt drawing my bow with the strength I had gained from doing archery I was outgrowing the bow I had. I started looking at better equipment and realized that it was going to get expensive fast..
The archery place I frequented had a customer appreciation day, Went there with no theory in mind other than seeing if arrows were on sale, they had a drawing for archery equipment. I put in my three tickets that they gave me at the door in a drawing thinking to myself I’ll never win anything. Little did I know that day I would walk out of the place with the top prize. I walked away with a Martin Jaguar Takedown bow! This took my new found hobby to the next level as is it introduced me to ILF limbs.
Thankfully with this prize it was a boon, I was accidently overpowering my bow I knew I had to step up my game. The step up in draw weight was a painful but fulfilling hill to climb. This started me down the road of proficiency with archery that even clubs were asking if I wanted to join. I could likely write a small book of my archery adventures.. the factors of what got me into this was the mindset and a bit of luck thankfully. But, I must say in the end archery has much prominence in my life and has helped me through the best and worst of times.
The greatest lesson archery can impart on you is – It’s not hitting a target, nor is it getting a bullseye, it is the pure action of trying and doing the best you can with a bit of humility and perseverance.