Monday, October 22, 2012

What's the Deal?!

Here's the scoop. My name is Jaiden and in case you're a friend of a friend or don't know me personally, I'm a competitive shotgun shooter. I shoot for the US overseas and yes, it is an Olympic sport but, no, I haven't gone to the Olympics yet. Let's get that one out of the way right now. I have NOT been to the Olympics yet.

I've been shooting shotgun since I was about 12 and started competing at 14. I made my first team when I was about 15 and have been traveling to overseas matches ever since. I moved out of the house at 17 when I was invited to live at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO and lived there for about 2 and a half years and moved back to Washington last October (2011).

And that's when people got confused....

Because I moved back home, started working right away, taking a class here and there, I've been asked frequently, "So...are you still shooting?" Yes. I woke up one morning and thought to myself by the next Olympics (2016) I'm going to be 25 years old. I'll have had no work experience (from a conventional job) and little education (one or two online classes per semester just wasn't going to cut it). So, after Fall Selection in October of 2011, my dad and I drove my truck and all my belongings back to the Great Northwest not to retire from shooting, but to get some schooling in and maybe make a couple bucks. I still train about 4 days per week and attend all of the matches.

Another frequently asked question is, "Where are you going next?" To answer this question, I thought I would start up this blog so that family and friends, or friends of friends, could come along for the ride. Here, I'll take to you each match and you can have the inside story on what really goes on in my head during a match and you can tag along on my overseas adventures as well. You'll all be a great excuse to actually stop to take some pictures. I won't travel for a few months so I'll go ahead and give a brief update on where I've been so far so we can all get caught up.

I hope you enjoy my rantings and ravings about this and that!

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