When did you know....

[Patrick Sweeney]

I found out in High School. I recently drove through my old neighborhood, and when I saw "the spot" the memory came back. Growing up, I was a brainiac. When I wasn't running wild through the woods, I was reading, One summer I started on page one of a children's encyclopedia. Two weeks and almost two feet of bookshelf later, I was done, and thinking "what else is there?" Answer: encyclopedia Brittanica.

Second year of high School, I'm working a part-time job. In short order, I'm making the bank deposits after closing (Yes, 16 y.o. kid, things were different back then)One foggy night, I'm in the bank parking lot, making the drop, when I hear a noise. From a mile away, I hear the crowds cheering my High School's football team. Something clicked. I had to have that noise.

Football is out, the team has been selected. next year, I don;t have the requisite 6-8 years of Pop Warner, etc, and I'm too skinny even to be a wide receiver. I sign up for the wrestling team, and make the team. The first meet, after winning my weight class, my name was mentioned on the school P.A. system. I floated from class to class that day.

I made State Finals, and on graduation, go into the martial arts. I look into this new thing called IPSC, and oh, hey, there's a skydiving school nearby.

All because of that distant cheering, in the fog.

[bgary]

I found out in High School. I recently drove through my old neighborhood, and when I saw "the spot" the memory came back. Growing up, I was a brainiac. When I wasn't running wild through the woods, I was reading, One summer I started on page one of a children's encyclopedia. Two weeks and almost two feet of bookshelf later, I was done, and thinking "what else is there?" Answer: encyclopedia Brittanica.

Great post.

For me, there are some parallels and some differences. Yes, voracious reader, went through the entire "world book" end-to-end as a kid, and haven't slowed down since. Have always been "competitive", heck, pretty much everything is a competition, isn't it?

My "moment", though, came through a different sport - I raced sailboats a lot, and the first time I won a major championship was a life-changer. Had the opportunity to look around just before the finish of the last race, and see all the boats - every last one of them - behind me. Not a single one was in front of me. That was deeply metaphorical inflection point. I couldn't wait until the "next time" that I could look around and see, well, nobody in front of me. Bigtime visual cue that on that day, on that racecourse, there was nobody better. It's never been about the applause, or the newspaper listings, or the recognition of others. For me, it has always been about quietly knowing that - at least for that instant - my own unique combination of preparation, skill and execution was demonstrably better than everyone else's.

Have chased that feeling ever since. Will probably never have it in shooting, but back when I was in school, or currently at work, and in all sorts of other venues... yeah, I'm still enamored with the feeling that at some moment, on some topic, I can look around and see that there's nobody in front of me.

[SiG Lady]

"When did you know.... you were a competitor, not a spectator?"

When the buzzer went off on the very first target and I was holding a gun and had only a few seconds to execute a perfect (or close to it) target! Complete with adrenalin. I was no longer "just practicing." Scary as hell.

[Sarge]

From day one!

[fuzzysights]

When I got sick of listening to other kids talking about the "shot that Hondo made" or something similar while they were watching tv and learning stats, meanwhile I was working on my motorcycle so I get out and ride more! Anything that gets the adrenaline pumping is fun!

[whitedog]

When I got my jump wings. 18 years and 9 months old. I realized I could do things others would not attempt.....and do them well. Along the same line, first contact with an unfriendly. I just knew I'd be ok.

[TruStreet]

When I was 10 yrs. old & my best friend came over to ask my mom for a ride to his football game. When I got there I was asked to play because their middle line backer was ill. After my first hit on the QB.

[hankfan79]

I knew I was a competitor when the sonogram showed me doing ghost reloads in the womb.