Just last week, Taylor held a .22 rifle for the first time and fired 5 shots. Her target was amazing, and I must correct myself and state that she was firing at 50 FEET not yards. My mistake, but as an adult, I'm used to yards.
So, today she showed up and signed her name to shoot. She went and found a jacket that fit her and asked Ken to help her get it on her.
Side note - there is no way for Ken to love these girls more, but he was completely emotional when Taylor chose to sign up as Taylor Koehler. Talk about smiling from ear to ear! Ken was so thrilled that she would prefer his name.
But, I travel a different story. So, Taylor waits patiently for her turn to shoot. At this stage, the kids are learning the 5 different stages: prone/supported, prone/unsupported, sitting, kneeling, and standing. When she receives a set of two targets with both passing scores, she receives a badge for that Stage and then moves on to the next stage to learn. When she has completed all five Stages, then she will qualify for the competition team.
So now it's Taylor's turn. She gets to the mat and has everything ready, but she waits for directions. Taylor had asked Ken one final question before heading to the floor - which way did the rounds go into the block? He made sure that she understood the primer had to be facing up.
Ken asks one of the other Club members to help her out since both coaches were busy helping other kids. This man got down and went over all of the instructions she needed and made sure that she understood.
Taylor then fired her first 25 shots. I was really proud of her because she took the only advice that I gave her: breathe deeply between shots and take as long as you need.
When she brought back her first target, I was beaming with pride in my child. Ken commented that apparently, I had passed my shooting gene down to her.
After she finished her first target, she was left on her own to finish. Taylor seemed to be getting really bored with everything - she was looking around at what everyone else was doing, she was forgetting to put the bolt forward, etc. As it turns out, she was checking everyone else out to see how much better she should do. It worked! Her second target was even better!
None of the men could believe that this was her first time shooting and that this was only her 2nd time holding a rifle! I was approached and asked how many times she had been trying to qualify for her Basic Badge, and I explained that this was her first night. That was when I learned that many of these kids (some being high school students) had been coming out for months and were still on their first Stage. Trying not to be prideful, I said nothing regarding the other children, but inside, I was completely undone.
For example, here is what was going on in my mind while I was pretending to simply look at my daughter's targets, "OH YEAH! THAT'S MY DAUGHTER! WHOO-HOO! SHE IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER KIDS HERE, OF COURSE!"
Taylor was completely beside herself with happiness. She knew she had done well when she kept being asked how many times she had been there. She decided that she officially wanted to join the Team, knowing that she had to commit to all 5 Stages and only when she was done with them all could she tell me if she didn't like some of the Stages and did not want to continue. If she wants to continue, however, Ken and I both told her that we would make sure that she had a shooting jacket that she could put her patches on, and that we would buy her all the necessary equipment for the Shooting Team.
As you can see, Taylor loved this idea:
So, yes, I am an extremely proud Mama again. I have Mandy wanting to join the Team next month as well as Jordan. We'll see when Jordan's allowed to join since she doesn't like to listen to rules or directions. In the meantime, it appears that Taylor has found her niche.
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