Bob and Archery, What a Delightful Combination!

            Every summer, I spend between two and nine weeks at my summer camp, and let me just say, the experiences that I have had there are just delightful.

            This past summer, I worked at camp, on “summer staff” as the archery instructor. One of my most delightful experiences over the nine weeks that I was there was when I had the opportunity to teach adults with special challenges how to shoot archery. In particular, I had one camper, let’s call him Bob, who was somewhat limited in the activities that he could do without help. Outside of the archery range, I had found it a bit difficult to communicate with Bob in a way he could understand, so when he came to the range, I questioned whether or not it was safe to give him a bow and arrow.

As I began to explain to Bob how to shoot, I noticed that his eyes widened with each word I said, which I took as being a sign that he was truly interested in shooting. When he first picked up the bow, I showed him how to hold it and what needed to be done to shoot the arrow. Cautiously watching Bob, I let him shoot on his own without my guidance. With perfect form and perfect stance, Bob’s first shot, was a bullseye, and so were the majority of the shots that he took that day. As soon as he saw my reaction as to how proud of him I was, he became extremely excited and opened up more than I had even seen It was this experience that I found most delightful at camp. Not only was Bob’s talent in archery surprising to me, it also made me so incredibly proud of him, especially since he never had done archery before.

It’s delightful moments such as this particular instance that make me so happy to be around adults with special challenges. Even though they might have difficulty with certain activities or tasks, they can also be quite talented with others. So, it’s necessary to give chances to adults with special challenges, they deserve the same opportunity to participate in an activity, just the same as everyone else. Sure, not every activity can be done alone, but it’s important to give them a shot at it. Not only are you able to be proud of them, but also they can be proud of themselves for accomplishing so much. There’s just something about these moments of pride that I find so delightful.