Chasin' Dem Dreams

Before anyone accuses me of taking those arrows and sticking them in the target by hand, I will swear here and now that all six of those shafts were shot at a measured distance of twenty yards in less than thirty seconds.

I stopped by Ty's place to practice yesterday, expecting to not perform as well as would like to, and I surprised myself. If I had done that well at a competition I recently attended, I would have walked away with the prizes easily! Instead, I find that my mistake was that I over-concentrated and was nowhere near relaxed enough to hit my A-game.

Today, I made a bowstring for a friend, and when I put it on the bow and shot, I found I was hitting one-inch leaves at ten yards! And it was so easy! Granted, that was mostly because it's a recurve with a formed grip and at least ten pounds lighter than I usually shoot, but it was just so much fun!

When I was a child, my dreams were made up of Robin Hood and King Arthur. When Dad and I started shooting longbows, my dreams were made up of ten-rings and bull's eyes. When I joined the SCA, I dreamed of becoming the next William Marshal. And now?

These days, I think my dreams are made up of having fun. I turned 25 yesterday, and it feels different from 24, just like 24 felt different from 23. It's taken me a long time to figure out what I want out of life, and just when I think I've got myself all figured out, I surprise myself one way or another. When one relaxes, he's good. When one has fun, he's even better, and even if he's not, he cares less about it.

I'm not going to give up on the dream of becoming a knight...but I am going to put it on hold for a while; probably a few years. I have decided to pursue even more skill with my bow than I ever thought myself capable of achieving. I have made a reputation for myself as one of the best longbowmen in Gleann Abhann. Now it is time to broaden my scope. I know there are kingdoms I can best, and even if I don't, I'm going to have a ball trying!

I'm not going to give up my dream of a degree. I can't go back to school this semester, but I will next semester, and I will be better. In the meantime, I've re-discovered the lure of acting. Hopefully, I can earn a few extra dollars as an extra in a few things and maybe get my face around to get some exposure and experience.

Eventually, I'll follow my dream of gymnastics, too. I don't want to compete, and I don't even want to accomplish that much, but I do want to learn how to tumble. I've got to get back to TKD, too. My body's in good shape, but it can be better.

All this talk about dreams comes from a lot of things happening in my life, and watching the Olympics contributes, too. They have archery as a sport, and it might still be called archery, but just barely. I want to compete someday with the traditional stuff. Maybe it's possible to beat all those fancy fiberglass recurves with their sights, three-foot stabilizers and carbon arrows with plastic vanes with nothing but a string, two sticks, some feathers, and your own body.

Only one way to find out...