Makayla C., May –
This month I decided to write about my favorite archery experience. Personally, I love everything about archery. I love my team, shooting, competing, everything. So it was hard for me to just pick one thing, until I realized that it was obvious. Let me explain, from the beginning.
I started out about three years ago; I had been looking for a new hobby or sport. Being homeschooled I had been doing a few classes at 4H and when we saw that there was an archery class I was super excited. I loved it from the beginning and soon I was getting the hang of it! In the first week I was hooked, it wasn’t too long after when I got my first bow, the one I still use now!
Skipping ahead a bit, once the class was over, I continued shooting at the archery range and shop that we got my bow at. For about the first six months, I was at the range three or four days a week, and by the end of my first year was shooting around the 250s-260s. The owner of the range at the time pretty much taught me how to shoot when the range wasn’t busy. He is one of the main reasons I’m as good at shooting as I am right now and I’m so grateful for that.
But back to what I was saying. I had started competing a bit as an individual. I had truly decided I wanted to be competitive with archery, so me and my parents started looking for a team to join. We couldn’t find a team since being homeschooled, I could only join the team of the school I was zoned for or would be going to if I was going to public school. That school didn’t have a team, so we had to figure out something else. That’s when we started looking for other options, like a homeschool team. We couldn’t find one anywhere in the county.
We figured out a way, and we made the wolf pack, a homeschool only group. Everyone on the team is homeschooled like me. We still compete at school tournaments, everyone that we have time to do, and it’s amazing. I love being on the team, I love competing, I love just shooting for fun, my parents are the coaches, so I get to shoot a lot, and I love it. And honestly, that is my favorite archery experience, being on the team. We are a homeschool that meets for a P.E class. we meet from 11am till noon twice a week. During archery we cover safety, the steps of shooting, sportsmanship, team building, goal setting, and even go on field trips together sometimes!
Not all archers in our homeschool compete, they learn the 11 steps with us and range safety. They use it towards their homeschool PE hours.
At the state competition, Emma, Clara, Callum, Peyton, Parker, and Ian, who are some of my teammates, were some of the first people there. An hour early like we always are in case our flight starts early. We all started walking around and just talking, when we found a place to sit soon Sydney and a bunch of others from the team got there, we all just talked until flight time. When the flight started it was amazing. Everyone from the team was talking in between ends, not just talking like we would off the line, it was so much more than that. Everyone was encouraging everyone, asking what another person shot and if they didn’t seem happy about it telling them not to worry that the next end would be better. Some of the younger kids on the team even went up and talked to some of the older kids on the team who they normally didn’t talk to. Personally, it felt like the first time the team, the entire team really came together or ‘clicked’ as we call it. It felt more like a big family than individual people, and it’s felt that way ever since.
That’s only one example of why the team has been and is my favorite archery experience. It’s made such a difference in my life, I’ve met so many people, I’m so grateful for that, and I always will be.
