You Can't Shoot a Buck from the Lodge
This year for spring break I went home to Atlanta and had two of my best friends visit me: Baleigh and Jill (Bae and Jilly as I call them).
Going home is always relaxing and fun. It's also a time I get to do touristy Atlanta things! I love showing my friends the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke, but some of my favorite adventures have been to places within an hours drive of the city limit. One such activity is to go skeet shooting.
I consider my family pretty southern. We love a good country song and delicious Brunswick stew. We even have a family barbecue sauce recipe - Bird Dogs BBQ (I made the logo). So yeah I guess we're southern.
So when thinking of something to do with Bae and Jilly, I thought it be fun to go skeet shooting - get out all that midterms stress! But when we checked the weather, it said 40% chance of rain... My dad called the range close to the airport, Tom Low Trap and Skeet Range, and they were still shooting - rain or shine.
And here comes the internal debate: do I want to chance getting wet and probably cold to just shoot some orange clay frisbees out of the sky? Bae and Jilly had never been, but we could watch a movie or do other rainy day activities... As I debated, my dad said, "Well Janie, you can't shoot a buck from the lodge." (One of many typical southern idioms my dad has shared with me over the years - perfectly timed and applicable to many situations). After my dad 'slyly' said we'd better try it out, there was no doubt in my mind that we were going to at least attempt to go skeet shooting. And man, I'm glad we did. Not a lick of rain - just fun times!
I tell that story because my dad's words stuck with me the rest of spring break: you can't get what you want if you don't put yourself out there.
I have been holding off applying to many jobs because I am scared - not of rain, but of rejection and the solidification that I am actually graduating from the greatest university on the planet. But at the end of spring break I decided it was time to get out of the lodge, and shoot the big buck. I applied to 5 publications today and if it rains on those 5 places, I at least went for it. I'll just keep on shooting my shot because if my dad taught me anything about deer hunting, you have to be patient to get the BIG buck. And I know it'll be worth it when I do.
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