Page 11 - Jan/Feb 2022 Outdoor Oklahoma Magazine

2021 CREATIVE WRITING COMPETITION

“DRAWN TO THE WOODS”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each year, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and Oklaho-
ma Station Chapter Safari Club International join to sponsor a creative writing competition for
Oklahoma middle and high school students. A boy and a girl from two age divisions are selected
winners. Students were required to write essays using the theme “Hunting: Sharing the Heritage”
or “Archery: What I Like About Archery in the Schools and Bowhunting.” Winners in the age
15-17 category receive a guided antelope hunt in the Texas Panhandle, and winners in the 11-14
age category receive a hunting trip with Rack Attack Outfitters of Fairview (or similar) and a
scholarship to the Outdoor Texas Camp. In this issue, Outdoor Oklahoma honors junior category
female winner Dixie Mae-Leigh Hill, 13, an eighth-grader from Justus-Tiawah School.

By Dixie Mae-Leigh Hill there watching squirrels and hanging out with my
I have grown up around fire- dad, looking for the flash of movement that might
arms. I remember being really be a deer.
little, probably 2 or 3. During My parents have always challenged me to step out
hunting season, as soon as I woke of my comfort zone a little. They have made me get
up, I would run to the bathroom up, put a smile on my face and dance, even though I
to look out the window to find the didn’t want to. People complimented me afterward.
oak tree that my dad was hunting My dad “highly encouraged” me to shoot a shotgun
in. I was always excited whenever there was a gunshot. so I would face my fears and know it was actually
About five years ago, I asked my dad to go hunting, fun. I have always been grateful afterward. I look
but he said that I would need to use a rifle and that I was back at the times my parents have encouraged me
still a little small. I have to admit, I’m a pretty cautious out my comfort zone and I realized it is their way of
kid, so anything that could hurt me, I’ve been wary of telling me that I can do anything. My parents tell me
using. Finally this summer I learned to use a shotgun. that often.
How hard the gun kicked was really what I’ve been This year, my dad and I went to Atwoods and got
afraid of, and since I had never used a gun that kicked, myself a youth hunting license. We spent upwards
I kind of backed down and was shy about trying. Dad of 14 hours in the woods over the span of the three
finally convinced me this summer that ALL guns kick, days of youth hunting season. When deer rifle season
but they don’t bruise if you hold them correctly. starts, we are going to go back into the woods. My
I was about 10 years old when I first used and AR-15. dad told me deer hunting is the most “un-fun” hunt-
We were at my grandparents’ house, and my dad asked ing there is. I have to say that I disagree. I love just
me to try out the AR. When I said “no,” he said “yes.” sitting out there.
After a couple of shots, I was addicted. I am not an expert hunter. I am not an advanced
The thought of hunting tickled at the back of my hunter. I am not even a beginner hunter. I am an ama-
mind. I knew that you used a rifle to hunt deer. When teur who wants America to be great again; who wants
I found out that AR stood for ArmaLite rifle, I asked to make her family proud and keep stepping out of
dad to go hunting again when we got home. He said I her comfort zone. I want to be an Oklahoman who
wouldn’t get to hunt, but I could go with him. In fact, he keeps her heritage and her beliefs alive. And I want to
took all of us individually — my younger sister, younger prove to all those people who say, “You’re a girl, you
brother, and my mom — into the woods. I loved sitting can’t do that,” that I can. And believe me, I will.

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