Lost Hobbies, Recovered.

I mentioned in our latest field test video that I hadn’t been shooting in 10 years.  Here are some thoughts on why that happened, life and a return to old adventures:
I grew up in a rural community where the smells of cows and freshly cut alfalfa were not uncommon. I grew up where you could go out your back door and shoot guns off into the vacant fields that seemed to stretch for miles. It was a blissful, safe place in the heart of America. My dad bought my brother and me BB-guns when we were young and we spent many afternoon hours sending copper coated BB’s careening into tin cans. As we got older, my dad would take us out to shoot his bigger guns. I’m doubtful that I’ll ever forget the pungent smell of gunpowder from .22 rounds. I guess there’s a certain sort of nostalgia that accompanies those memories of trap shooting and plinking at cans strung up on barbed wire fences.
I’m not really sure why I ever stopped shooting. Maybe it was because school got busy or because I was involved in sports and other activities. I don’t remember making a conscious decision to stop shooting guns; it just kind of happened. Sometimes in life the things that we enjoy doing manage to wrangle their way out of our hectic schedules. It’s not that we don’t enjoy doing those things, but more the simple fact that life happens in the midst of our recreation. I went shooting a few times in high school, but it was a latent hobby that I didn’t have much time to do. High school turned into college and I spent the next seven years (don’t judge) working toward that elusive diploma. There wasn’t time to sleep in college and there certainly wasn’t time to enjoy the clanking brass of shells at the range. And by that time, I’d essentially forgotten about shooting sports. It was something I used to do, but didn’t really do anymore.
Filming this video with the Late Boy Scout was a riot. The smells came back, the memories came back and I remembered how much I enjoy shooting, despite my inability to actually hit the target. We often forget how much we enjoy something until we do it again. I find this with mountain biking every year in the spring and skiing when winter rolls around. There are things in this world that I just love to do, despite the fact that I don’t do them as much as I would like. So, I issue you a challenge: go do something that’s slipped away from you. Maybe it’s fishing and you haven’t been since you were a kid. Maybe it’s camping. Maybe you love archery and it has escaped. Whatever it is, take a few hours and go do it! And the beautiful thing: whatever your lost hobby, there’s surely a knife you can take on your new old adventure. Let me know in the comments of this post the lost hobby you recovered.
-Ben