This all seems super crappy…
To brighten some moods I am gonna share my trad hard up story-
After getting banged up over seas on a NG deployment I spent the next couple years having 6 surgeries and insane amounts of physical therapy. All of this immediately after getting married, having my first child, and just having bought a new home. I had 0 income and a new family depending on me all during a time that I couldn't even force myself to walk without a limp without undergoing immeasurable pain.
I lived by using my savings money and using it to day trade on the stock market for a bit. Another surgery during that time and I was unable to keep up with the market enough to make any money. Another 6 months and the savings went dry. When I was able between all the medical crap I took whatever work I could get to try and pay down some of the credit we were scraping by on.
I took a 3 month civilian contractor gig in Iraq and was able to pay down some of our credit debt we were using to survive. During that time there were Golden Jackals everywhere (I could have hunted them from the door to my room)and I though to myself,"I need a bow to take with me on these trips so I can try to do a little hunting on these military posts without getting shot at.
I get home and all the money I made had been used solely to pay off a little bit of our growing mountain of debt(talk about feeling helpless). There was no way I could even think about affording a compound bow(all I thought there was at the time), but I remembered an old browning recurve I had in the back of a closet.
I posted to a MS forum I enjoyed call bullnettlenews.com (great forum for south easterners) asking if anyone could do anything with a recurve. A fella named stringwacker started posting pictures of ever critter known to man he had shot with them. He then invited me over and offered to help me get set up. Its hard to remember but I think I may have eluded t the fact that I was in dark times and couldn't afford much.
I drove the hour drive to his house thinking that I shouldn't be burning the $$ in gas and those few dollars should be going to feeding my family instead. My wife made me go though.
I pull up into his driveway driving a new looking (i take care of my stuff) BMW 5series (times were good before I got hurt and could afford it then, after the injury I couldn't afford it, but couldn't afford to be without a vehicle either). Mark comes out and of course taking note of the fine car I am driving(he could have easily thought I was some sapsucker trying to get something for free). He didn't judge though. Instead he took me in, taught me how to straighten the limbs on my old bow, taught how to shoot, and sent me home with a hand me down glove, some 175gr field points, some 175gr zwickey broad heads, and a couple arrows. I shot those 2 arrows for a long time.
Eventually I was able to buy me a half dozen easton game getters. A couple years later my disability finally came in from the VA. I eventually healed up, sort of. I have since started my own company, paid off all our debt, and am able to provide for my family once again and have a stable life.
I have since lost the arrows Mark gave me, moved on to a better set up and everything else. But I still shoot with that glove most of the time and it serves as a content reminder. What Mark did for me was the single greatest act of kindness anyone has ever done for me, and it was in my lifes darkest hour when I didn't see a light at the end of any tunnel. The time following that day meeting Mark was mainly spent shooting that bow, and it became a lot more to me than just trad shooting. It was an escape from some dark stuff going on inside of me.
Without those freedoms that that bow provided me I don't know where I would be today, if here at all.
I know that no one understands, but that simple gesture of kindness and the freedom it gave me, provided me with a solid footing in my darkest hour. Thank you Mark.
Moral of my story: Don't let some shady business make you afraid of helping someone, especially in person. What is a simple gesture t you may be a lot more to someone else.
Topic: Help get a teen set up (Read 968 times)
