It's been a crazy month to say the least. A lot has happened. Whether in my life, the country etc. There are things to talk about and things not to but they have all been their own kind of crazy. Firstly I got my license. It's a freedom that I've never had and I truly realize why people get so excited about it. At first it was one of those things that I thought it would be cool but I wasn't excited just kinda ehh. I was wrong like everyone said I was and trust me it pains me to say that. If you know me well enough being right is kinda a goal for me. So I've tried to take advantage of this whole thing. I've started doing things I wasn't able to do on a regular basis before. I've started hunting... A lot. To the point where my mom worries about me because I'm out in the woods for hours on hours. But she's handled it well and I commend her for that. But all this alone time has given me a lot of time to think. Which I'm not sure is healthy or not. But I enjoy it nevertheless. Been thinking about life a lot. Which I think is probably an important thing to do at my age. It's also provided me with a sense of accomplishment that I've honestly never felt before. I mean I got a lot of pride out of the first time my dad took me duck hunting. It's quite a funny story when I look back. Now if you don't know how duck hunting works its fairly simple. You have to get up way to early for you to exist but it's worth it in hindsight although you won't be thinking that when your alarm goes off at 5:00AM. Once you get to a suitable pond you lay out decoys. It's like an ambush that you would see in the movies. Now if you've never been before you probably won't grasp it entirely but I'll explain it to the best of my abilities. Ducks are like... Let's say you take the flash right. You remember that cocky super hero that was so fast you just wanted to be him when ou were little? Ok so you take the flash you slap feathers and wings on him and you call it a duck. That's how ducks were created in my mind. So me and my dad have these decoys out on the pond and the sun is peeking over the horizon like it's spying on you. Just enough light to see. I'm sitting here and it's freezing I can't feel my toes heck I can't feel anything. All of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I see movement. My dad says "This ones yours Wil. You can do it." I suddenly get butterflies as I am extremely scared of any sort of failure. Now you have to shoot these tiny flashes out of the sky, which makes it that much harder like the cold wasn't enough. I can imagine what my dad was thinking. I know that he was positive this duck was lucky cause I wasn't gonna hit anything, no way a ten year old was gonna hit this thing. But my expectations were high and I came to succeed. This duck sounds like a jet as he locks his wings and swoops down like a fighter jet I kid you not. I could almost here him uttering Top Gun esc radio chatter as he came in to land. The wind ripped through his wings as he bled his speed. I pulled my oversized gun that I could barely hold up for more than 5 seconds. I took aim making sure to aim in front of the little flyer to compensate for his speed. As soon as it looked lined up I took the shot a squeezed the trigger like I was told to do. He dropped out of the air like a block of lead. Now this may sadden you but it was one of my happiest moments. I looked over at my dad who was smiling ear to ear and look quite surprised. That made it. That made the cold worthwhile. That made the 5:00AM wake up worth it. Just to see the pride in my dads face. The sense of accomplishment was stupendous. I've been hooked on the experience of tracking down gods creation in the outdoors since. Now you may not like hunting you may find it sad. However you feel you can't call something bad that makes you grow in such a huge way. I've learned so much through my time in the cold. I've learned so much in fact that last week I challenged myself to go and try and bag a coyote. All by myself. So I drove out and set up. I lied on my belly for an hour and a half just to prove to myself I could do it, not to prove to anyone else. But just for me and I did it. I grew. I grew in my mind. I felt accomplished. Like I could do something all by myself. That's something that a lot of kids my age are missing out on in my opinion. That's the last thing I want to happen to me. I don't want to be the norm but neither do I want to go so far off the beaten path to where I can't learn from others. I hope that other people my age will realize. We live in an ever growing age where things are just handed to teens, not earned. I earned that coyote. And I'm so proud of it. It gave me self worth. These are just some of the things I've been thinking about. I could wright so much more but I don't want to bore. I challenge you to think about that sense of accomplishment, whether you be my age or around that ballpark. Or maybe your older, I don't know. But when was the last time you were really proud of yourself? Think about it. If it takes you more than a couple minutes to answer maybe it's time to go do something. Make adventures. Don't be scared to take risks as I am the majority of times. It's time that we all start growing ourselves. Growth is the best thing you can do for yourself. I'm gonna spend the next couple days reflecting on all of this. Then maybe I'll get around to writing another one of these things. It would be a miracle if I could get one out sooner than once a month. I hope I provoked thought. I love thinking. I'll add some cool videos that may be off topic but I thought they were interesting and I might make a habit of adding stuff like that. Keep on thinking and grow. -Willis
P.S. If you are on a mobile phone and you want to check out the videos the links might not work so you may have to copy and paste. I promise it's worth it.
Awesome Vids(:
How Does A Cat Land On It's Feet?
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RtWbpyjJqrU
The Craziest Thing I've Ever Seen!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kbFMkXTMucA
