Where did you get your 'want to?'
By MICHELLE WEBB Lakecaster Correspondent

I don't recall exactly when it was that I started "shooting a bow." I know as a child that I made one out of sticks and strings and I know off and on through my childhood I had toy bows and toy guns. The first time I really remember shooting was in our backyard with my Dad and my younger brother when I was a junior in high school. I credit both of my parents for my love of the outdoors. My mom gets credit for taking us on walks, making casts from tracks or simply telling us to "go outside and play!" I can't really tell you what my Dad gets the credit for. He was never one to push something on us. We pretty much just always wanted to do what he was doing whether it was roping, riding horses, shooting our B-B guns or archery.

The only thing he did was tell us to enjoy whatever you do and be safe. I think my Dad is really an extraordinary man. My Dad can do anything and never gives up if it is something he is really passionate about. I could go off on so many other stories here but I will stick with this one for now.

Through the rest of high school there were other things to pursue and shooting was just not one of them. Then there was college, jobs, marriage, a house, land, etc, etc. It wasn't until I was actually going through a tough time in my life that I found the sport again. I was going through a divorce so my time was better spent around family keeping myself busy. In all the years away doing all my "other stuff" I had given up hunting and shooting of guns or bows.

One day my Dad asked me if he could arrange it, if I wanted to go hunting with him. It would just be a doe harvest on a game ranch of a friend of his. I said sure. That was the weekend I got my "want to." We were fortunate enough to get to hunt out of the same blind together. We spent a lot of time talking, gawking at the "expensive game" and just spending time together. Later that evening after a successful hunt we were sitting around the "sacred campfire." Now the twist to this story is the same backyard I was sitting in at that campfire, just happened to be the same backyard that a little more than 10 years earlier, I was shooting a bow with my Dad and my younger brother. The house we rented when I was in high school had been turned into a B&B and the rest of the land high fenced and managed for whitetails and exotics. Talk about bringing back some memories.

I had the most wonderful weekend of my life and even extended it to another day just because I didn't want it to end. Just the feeling of being outdoors, with friends and especially with family was what I had missed and I swore to myself that I would never give that up again, it WAS important. Shortly thereafter Dad gave me his old Bear #45 recurve to start shooting with. I practiced all the time. We started shooting 3-D tournaments as a family. When I say family, I mean my Dad, my younger brother and his wife and myself. This was definitely a family affair! It was addicting! The bow, the bonding, all of it. It was pure addicting. I had the "want to's" so bad I wanted to get more involved in the sport.

Eventually I volunteered to be an officer in the local archery club. I finally gave Dad his "borrowed" bow back (which, by the way, was as old as I was) and went and bought my very own bow. I also started helping teach the local 4-H Archery Program.

I was lucky enough to meet someone with the same interests, and that would put up with me, to bring yet another wonderful aspect to this life of mine. So now we all shoot together and we all volunteer together. We all got certified as Level I Archery Instructors together and recently became certified by the IBEP and TPWD to be Bowhunter Education Instructors for the State of Texas. Now that is eat up with it, huh? But, it is fun and we are doing it for a reason, because we have the "want to." We want someone else to have that feeling that we have and love, and that we share with each other.

We have some kids that show up for archery class that can't hit the target either because of disability or insecurity at first. They don't have to be athletic, they don't have to be good and they don't have to be competitive....all they have to have is the "want to" and they WILL be successful.

Sure you can compete against other archers in all kinds of contests whether it is 3-D, field archery, hunting, etc. Archery is an individual's sport. It is an ANYBODY sport, be that a child, teenager, man or a woman.

All the individual has to decide is how far they want to take their skills, how bad is their "want to."

I give most of the credit to my Dad for my "want to." I rib him all the time about how he can't seem to get his kids to go away, as we are always hanging out and being the other son he never had. You see I am his daughter, his oldest child. He reassures me all the time that I am exactly what he hoped for and that it is always good when your kids want to hang around.

I am now married and have 3 wonderful boys who all enjoy shooting their bows and are very involved in 3-D tournaments. We don't force it on them but it is great family time and time well spent.