Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Fishing With the Guys

The boy has been on a journey of late, which is both delightful and amusing to watch. He is really defining himself, what his interests are, and where he wants to spend his time. His experience this week helped catapult him forward on that journey. Two of his friends asked him to go fishing with them. It is Spring Break, after all, he reasoned, so I should do something fun. This time, however, the boy's paradigm of a fishing outing proved inaccurate.
His buddies requested that he spend the night with them, so they could get an early start. They were fishing on a lake about 2 hours away. He made his plans to join them, but the evening of the scheduled event, he discovered that his friends, being of a far more laid-back nature than he is, were then just beginning to obtain parental permission. This was a shock to my well-planned boy! After everything finally sifted itself out, they got to bed around midnight, but the "early" wake-up was at 3:00a.m.~ not enough sleep for my boy. The next thing I heard from him was a text about noon, bored already. When we questioned him about his estimated time of arrival, he informed us they'd be leaving somewhere near dark. The next text rolled in 9:00ish. He and the guys had just left, and were savoring their first meal of the day! Three voracious, teenage boys?! How can this be?
We welcomed our boy home at last shortly before midnight, weary and brimming with humorous anecdotes from the adventure. He looked similar to the boy who had departed 24 hours before, but as though he had just popped out of a toaster. My tall, dark, and handsome boy was a lovely shade of deep red from the tops of his bare feet to the tip of his neck and forehead. At first glance I realized that the senior pictures, which were to be taken the next day must be postponed. It was worth it, I suppose. He began to tell us how the day unfolded. My boy, who is a prolific communicator, had spent 15, yes, Fifteen hours on the lake with boys who love to fish. That is lot of time to think- especially when he told me the fish tally. It's consistent with the story of his life when he's playing other folk's games. We have never encouraged video games, feeling that there is always something more productive they could be doing. For that reason, when he does play, it's generally hilarious. For example, playing ___ game, friend A has 100 kills, friend B has 99 kills, and the boy? 5 kills. In his own words, he's the one falling off the sides of the stairs. And, after all, if your stair-climbing skills aren't well-developed, your overall game will suffer. The fruit of 15 hours of hard fishing? Friend A- 22 bass, friend B- 19 bass, and the boy? 2 bass.
He discovered several important things that day. First, he discovered that if his reasons for going on an adventure were purely social, perhaps fishing should not be the best activity of choice. Fishing is a quiet sport. Secondly, one perhaps ought to ask how long one's day is going to be before one gets hauled out into the middle of nowhere on a boat without food or sunscreen.
And most importantly, he learned that there are those people who like to fish, and then there those people who live to fish. My boy belongs to the former group. He'll think twice the next time he says yes to something! Better to know yourself and your personal limits, and spend your time carefully doing things you love. Next time, maybe he can fish locally (a moderate dose), and then take the guys to beach!

1 comment:

ShelleyAnne said...

All I can picture is that white pale skin which is now raging red! Yikes! Probably a clear difference between the plans of males and the plans of females rings loudly here...can you imagine that happening to a group a of girls? LOL