So the weekend of March 17-19th my rifle team and I traveled from Buffalo, NY all the way to Fort Benning, Georgia to participate in the NRA intercollegiate championships. I’ve written about my team before (see https://www.theodysseyonline.com/bleeding-heart-liberal-gun) so you already know how much I appreciate my team, which is a good thing when we have to spend entire weekends together, usually involving long road trips. This trip was no exception and was probably the best trip so far between the great southern food, warm weather, hilarious jokes, hotel cookies, meeting other teams, movie nights, and late night Taco Bell travels (and our Chick-Fil-A trips. The cover photo was taken outside our first CFA dwarf house in Georgia, minus one member). Some of us PRed (personal record) in certain areas, left disappointed in others; but that’s all a part of competing. I’m not going to lie, watching a rifle match is probably a huge snooze fest (no, definitely is), but there’s something about getting in the zone that I’m sure anyone who’s ever participated in any sport understands, it’s such a great feeling and as long as you enjoy that part and learn something then that’s all that matters. For a competitive sport rifle is surprisingly noncompetitive (as long as you ignore the whispers of some of the spectators), most of the competition is personal and within a team rather than intercollegiate. In fact, one of the girls from another school scored a perfect 100 on a paper and I’m pretty sure every shooter was in awe rather than being bitter. And of course shout out to University of Akron team for inviting the Canisius College shooters over to hang out, it’s always great to meet new teams and playing CAH.

I’ve never been in such a group of people that congratulated you based on your own records and achievements rather than how you stack up nationally, it’s pretty great. It also helps that the group gets along so well; we have similar senses of humor and even though we have radically different personalities it’s been interesting to see how we’ve rubbed off on one another (talking about you, Jared). I’ve went from barely knowing half the team to being quite close with all of them and comfortable enough to give them a bunch of flak, which has only gotten worse with each trip. I can’t wait for the next season and seeing how much we improve for next year’s nationals and all the trips we take along the way (hopefully our coaches don’t kill us before then, we can be quite the bunch). I know I’ve come a long way from my first matches shooting a 230 in small bore and low 300s in air rifle to shooting in the low 400s in small bore and high 400s in air, a trend of improvement that I hope to continue to see, especially after going to nationals. It’s amazing how much seeing truly amazing shooters will motivate you. I’m so glad that I found rifle and that I lucked out with such an amazing team.