Meme #2: This Is Not The Sharpshooter You're Looking For. Move Along...

Earlier this week I was tagged with my first meme: "Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself." This is a further explanation of #2 on my list.

2. I stopped taking riflery at camp when I was 12 because I was afraid I'd get drafted.

I used to be very good at riflery. Then one day, I realized that the certificates of completion I'd received were from the National Riflery Association. -And I panicked. I immediately thought "Oh my God... The N.R.A. knows I'm a "Pro-Marksman." The U.S. government has documented PROOF that I can shoot a rifle! If they draft me someday, how am I going to explain to them that 'yes, I'm very good with a gun but I'll only shoot targets and I refuse to shoot something that's living!' ?"

I imagined all kinds of conversations where I'd try to explain the whole "I won't shoot living things" concept to various government officials and/or generals, or where I'd try to convince them to use my sharpshooting skills for technical things like shooting a weapon out of someone's hand, or shooting a bolt that was holding a crucial piece of rope at the top of a tall building way across a dangerous field... (Yeah... I didn't watch too much television! ;) ). But no matter how times I played out these scenarios my head, they always ended the exact same way -With the government officials or generals staring down at me in my olive drabs, handing me a rifle, and saying "we don't care."

So I did the only logical thing a 12-year old at sleepaway camp could do. I stopped taking riflery in the hopes that the N.R.A. and the U.S. Government would forget all about me, and never force me to go into battle and kill people. I never got drafted so it must have worked ;)