Sometimes you have to be bold

So over the course of the summer I have worked a lot of different jobs out here at camp. But I think my favorite afternoon job has been paintball. It’s exciting, you get some Ac between games and I mean it’s paintball so it’s just generally awesome. Now I had worked out there on the day I was interviewing for the job. I really liked it. But I had never actually played before. As a camper I didn’t want to pay for someone to shoot at me. That sounded stupid. The few times I’d had a chance when I was younger I skipped out on it. Because yeah I don’t exactly love pain. Now to put this into context I play Roller Derby so pain is a relative term here. At any rate. Working out at the paintball fiend you are bound to get hit at some point and the first time I got hit I was surprised it only hurt a little. It left a big nasty looking bruise but it didn’t hurt as bad as it looked. Anyway I got hit while reffing a game so I didn’t get a gun or marker (as we call them) so I didn’t get to shoot back. But I got to play for the first time yesterday. I’ve spent the entire summer watching these students playing. Figuring out what worked and what didn’t. The only thing is I never had a marker to practice with. So I got out there. I’m not a bad shot when it comes to throwing or aiming, my bow and arrow set, bb guns and nerf. Using a different kind of mechanism just takes learning how it works. How to calculate where the paint/bullet will go, etc. That goes for any kind of gun, bow, etc. I also watched how people would play. I saw the girls and the guys. Most of the time girls would play like wimps. They would sit in a corner and not move at all unless they got hit. Then they would respawn and go right back to the spot where they got hit before. I don’t understand playing like that. You still get hit either way most of the time. Plus it doesn’t help your team any. I knew going into the game, since it was my first game if I was lame like that and did nothing but sit still the entire game I would never live it down from my friends and coworkers. So I decided at the beging of the game I didn’t care about being shot. I was going to go for the win no matter what. So I played. Any chance I got I ran to the next spot always trying to advance. I knew I need to be bold. Your probably thinking on it’s just paintball who cares. You’ve got to understand I was scared to play when I was younger. So this game was a mark of me being able to face something I have been scared of in the past. Now to be clear I got lit up all over I got shot in the head, the stomach, chest, both arms and legs. I can honestly say I’m proud of how well I played. At close to the end of the game I ran straight up to a group of 4 guys on the opposite team who were all bigger and taller than I am but like a foot at least and got 4 out of 5 of them to surrender. When I say I ran straight up to them as in I was 3 to 4 feet away and yelled at them all “Hey player surrender” and one at a time they all did the walk of shame except the one who shot me. So yeah I paid for boldness in bruises. But I know I hit people while shooting, I got 4 guys who were all bigger than me to surrender and I proved to myself and the people who were watching just how much of a bad ass I really am. Almost everyone else on the field had neck or chest protection, yeah I skipped it. Okay now I’m just boasting. Back to the point. I was given the choice. Every single time I moved to a new piece of cover. Everytime I got hit to play it safe. Try not to get hit or to be bold. To become completely fearless for 10 minutes and to make brave choices. Ones that made a guy lie on the ground with his hands in the air looking like he would pee himself. Because this tiny 5’2 chick with a paintball gun was crazy enough to run right up to him and point a paintball gun at his chest. In that moment I felt on top of the world. That’s what boldness gets you. Boldness brings you closer to victory.