At the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would do the things I wanted to do. And for a while that was just me buying things I wanted, and seeing my friends in other cities, somewhat frequently. But at the end of January, I took it upon myself to look for a local archery club that I could join, as archery has always been something I wanted to do. Luckily for me, there was a club right around the corner from my home, so I emailed the club owner for lessons. The second I pressed send I was hit with a wave of adrenaline because I was finally doing it.
Fast forward two weeks and I get an email asking for my availability, and my palms were instantly sweaty because my job doesn’t allow me the freedom of giving availability because it always changes. But by the grace of God, I had a few consistent days off to send back to him. And thus, my journey to become an archer had begun.
Some background. I had done some archery before. I’d done a few sessions in the summer of 2012 and 2013 and with school and then a further session with NCS in 2017. So I knew my way around a bow but this was the first time it would be real and final, a time where I’d be expected to continue.
My first session was started at 10 am on a Tuesday morning. An inconspicuous day if you ask me. But I had my mum walk me to the meeting point where my instructor was waiting with a car full of bows and arrows for me to play with. During my first session I already knew that this was something I wanted to do long term. Holding the bow was just… right. And I left the session excited for the next.
The next Tuesday rolls around and I’m skipping to the meeting point. Excited to spend an hour just shooting arrows and being in tune with nature. More of the same occurs, perfecting my stance, working on gap shooting – aiming without a scope, and just being one with my thoughts and focusing on one thing. Which if anyone knows me and my hobbies, knows this is kind of hard for me to do. But I could focus on this. Which is one of the main reasons I want to stick with it.
When I realised how at peace I could be when I was just focusing on hitting a physical target, I knew this was something I couldn’t push to the side like some of my other hobbies. Mainly because archery seems like it will be very good for my mental health, as the time I spend shooting can be a good form of meditation for me.
My final lesson was bittersweet, because although I had perfected my stance and the instructor was praising my command of the bow, I was having performance anxiety. I just couldn’t hit the board, until he left to help another student pack away his bow. The second I was alone I hit bullseye, multiple times and I think this will be my biggest downfall as I aim to get to a point where I can confidently shoot in field archery competitions. But as the saying goes, ‘practice makes perfect’.
My aim with this is to start a little journal on here on the progress of some of my hobbies. The main two I will be documenting, here and on a YouTube channel I am thinking of starting under the same name, will be archery and roller-skating. Hopefully you’ll stay around for the journey.
TLDR: I took up archery classes only to get performance anxiety at the end when it finally mattered to hit bullseye but I will be continuing in order to gain control over that thread of anxiety too.
The NewRxmantic 