Fish

I’ve always wanted to see the world and explore all it has to offer. The opportunity seems to become more and more accessible to me each waking moment. I’m only sixteen. In fact, I turned sixteen in Ireland.

I’d like to think I’m not an ordinary kid but now that I actually think about it, I am. I guess I’m just lucky, lucky to have opportunities. I’ve been pretty out there I suppose, but subconsciously. Maybe I see myself that way but I don’t know if that’s how others see me. The way I see myself influences the free spirit I have in me. Always wanting to be somewhere other than where I set my two feet every day. A longing to wake up to a different smell and a new sunrise. A desire for something more, more than what my small town in North Carolina has to offer.

Apart from my traveling blood, I love the outdoors and fishing. That is super rare nowadays for a girl my age and for a girl in general. I’m not phased by it because I see myself as equal. I’ll get to where I want to be just how everyone else does, with no special treatment and no strings attached.

It is my dream to be outside every day of my life enjoying the air, the animals, and the life swimming beneath the water. It is my dream, my dream. I want to educate others about my dream and I want them to live it out with me. I want people to feel how I feel when I hold a fish. I want people to feel how I feel when I watch the sunset and sunrise from the mountaintops. I want people to feel how I feel when I dip my feet in the cold river water after a day of hiking. That is my dream. I’m working on my reality.

Every day I wake up and have a strong urge to run outside barefoot to feel the earth under me, a sense of structure and solidified purity. To place my wandering feet on something much larger than me. I have control of myself, where I run, and where I place my feet.

The sport of fishing has taken a hold of me. So much so that every moment I’m breathing I want to be on the water searching for that one bite that comes with patience and effort. You cast and cast and cast until your wrists hurt. You have line burn. Your back hurts. I think that’s one of the reasons I love it so much, it pushes me to my limits. That pushing makes me a better person and a better angler. Part of my dream I mentioned earlier is to make this my full-time job. At the end of the day, money is not a concern for me and won’t be until I want to start my family. Passion surpasses money, passion is worth way more. I wouldn’t ever sacrifice happiness over tangible currency. To make fishing my full-time job allows me to travel, learn, and educate. Who knows where that will take me.

Fishing allows me to see the world in a perspective that not many think of seeing it in. I feel like people get so caught up and don’t appreciate the natural resources that can be found all over the world and so easily accessible. I know for sure that my kids are going to get those experiences that not many parents think of giving them. You should grow up in a growing world. By that I mean your kids should grow as the world grows before their eyes. Sure it’s nice to settle down on a street where they know everyone’s name, and that is going to happen, but the world is so much bigger than just one street and one school.

When you’re fishing you’re not thinking about things you left behind, you’re thinking about what you’re going to do next. You’re dreaming of what fish may end up in your boat. I think that’s another beauty of it, being able to actually dream a dream that could come true at any moment. With fishing, there is always a possibility. There is always an opportunity.

Fishing has taught me a lot about a lot of things: How you need to work for results. How you must work to come out on top. How you have to understand nature before it understands you. How you can’t rely on Mother Nature to always be kind. How simple a motor fix can be. How being caught out in the rain without a working engine can make for some of the best memories. How to turn a negative into a positive. I can go on...

You should try it.