Sara Davis – Archery has many recognized benefits as a sport; patience and focus, a steady hand and mind, and how to clear your head of anything but the target and the point of the arrow. There are other, perhaps lesser-known benefits, that I have found archery to have. For me, archery is not merely a sport that trains my focus and fills my early mornings, it represents my revitalized confidence and self-esteem.
I started archery when I first transferred to my middle school and now high school. Coming here was one event that divided my life into before and after. Before, I attended an elementary school for six years and felt bullied and ostracized by my fellow schoolgirls. What they did to me was hardly physical, as I used to be tall before I plateaued at a disappointingly average 5’4, but I think I almost would have preferred it if it was. Bruises heal and scabs fall off.
However, when someone attacks you at an emotional level, when they go after your sureness of self, when they exploit your childlike sense of geniality and vulnerability, that sticks with you a lot longer than a scrape on the knee. These attacks might do more damage than any other kind of violence.
When I transferred schools, I was socially stunted and largely friendless, wary of anyone friendly. I wondered if I would become the butt of jokes here too? Then, I joined archery, one of the first extracurricular activities I picked up at my new school. After I began this sport, something remarkable happened. I made friends. I met genuinely kind, talented, and like-minded people. And I have found, from first-hand experience, that when the socially awkward make friends, more often than not, they blossom. We tend to find our voices and open up once again, dropping our guards and old fears. To me, archery was integral to this transformation.
It was slow and gradual. For a long while, I stayed off to the side while behind the waiting line. My natural hesitance coupled with my original struggles at archery made me a little cold.
As my archery skills developed, so did my confidence.
And as my confidence developed, I put myself out there more and more with others. I made jokes with my classmates while we waited to pull arrows. We told funny stories around the lunch table. I became closer with kids I had known all year but never really spoken to and I discovered that they were just as shy as I was. On long trips to competitions, we talked for hours. At state, we all went out afterward to celebrate. During archery, I have made and strengthened many friendships.
Hailey and I became friends when we met in the 7th grade during archery practice, and we bonded over YA novels and our dogs. I started talking to the new kid, Maya, because we had the same archery slot, and it was the same for classmate Jillian. Vanessa and I became friends because the two of us were always late and walked to the gym together. Annikka, Bronwyn and I met during recurve practice. Pratheeka and I rekindled our preschool friendship because of archery.
I have grown as a person, and have made many friendships and grown existing ones because of archery. Of all the things I take from archery, these personal connections will undoubtedly be the greatest.
-Sara Davis is a 2022 student contributor. Watch for her future submissions.-
