My Hunting Life

For a large portion of my life, I have been a hunter, and I see that as something that defines me. When I was a young boy, around six or seven years old, my dad would take me hunting. I wasn’t really big enough to shoot the gun, so I would just come along to watch, taking in everything I saw my dad do. For my first two years of hunting, I was learning how to sit still and be quiet, as well as how to stay properly camouflaged. It wasn’t until I was almost eight years old when my dad let me shoot the gun. We were just sitting in the woods one weekend, and we were not expecting to see anything. I was watching the pine trees sway in the breeze and the sun filter down through the leaves in little rays. We had been sitting in the stand for about two hours when my dad tapped me on my shoulder. “Look,” was the only thing he said. As I followed his eyes and squinted down the trail, I saw a deer. It was just standing there, looking at us. Slowly, without making a sound, he handed me the rifle. The way I was sitting, I had to twist to be able to see the deer in the scope. I was lucky that it didn’t just bolt into the woods as soon as I moved. I set the crosshairs on the deer’s shoulder, took a breath, and squeezed the trigger. All I was thinking about was if I hit the deer in a good spot. My dad and I waited for about fifteen minutes before we got down from the stand. We then went to get my brother from his stand so he could help us look for the deer. It was starting to get dark and hard to see, but we realized we had forgotten our good flashlights! It took us a while to figure out what to do, and every minute we thought about what to do, it was getting darker. Finally, we decided we had to use the flashlights on our phones. We searched for over an hour until my dad finally spotted blood. I was so relieved as we followed the blood trail, knowing I had hit the deer. By this point, my excitement was almost bubbling over. I had been itching to kill a deer since I first started hunting, and now, hopefully, I had. At last, we found the deer lying in the woods next to a big pine tree. When I picked up the head, I saw it was a six-point buck. I was so happy, I almost jumped for joy because both my dad and my brother shot a doe before they ever shot a buck, but my first deer was a buck, and that was something I will always have.

    Hunting is a great way to cleanse your mind and relax. As I have hunted more, it has become less about killing a deer and more about acknowledging the beauty of nature. Honestly, I would still love to shoot a big buck as my dad has, but I just love to get in the woods. There is a serenity that I experience in the woods like I haven’t felt anywhere else. Sitting in the woods on a still morning is as calm as a newborn baby sleeping. It is my version of meditating after a long week at school. When I am hunting, I don’t worry about things like homework or projects. I am focused and cleansed. Sitting in a deer stand is the best way for me to be close to God because I can see the beauty he created.