Page 6 - July/Aug 2020 Outdoor Oklahoma

2019 CREATIVE WRITING COMPETITION

“WE NEED TO KEEP THE HERITAGE ALIVE”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each year, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
and Oklahoma 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 at the Circle P Pogue Ranch (or similar) and a scholarship to the
Outdoor Texas Camp. In this issue, Outdoor Oklahoma honors senior category male
winner Garret Bowdre, 17, from Calera High School.

HUNTING: SHARING Unfortunately growing up as I did, we never really
THE HERITAGE got to do much because we didn’t have much money.
Even when my dad and mom worked two jobs, they did
By Garret Bowdre the best they could. They always got me what I wanted
I grew up hunting as a small boy, even when we didn’t have the money or I didn’t deserve
and my dad taught me everything I’ve it. I know there are a lot better candidates than me out

ever known. Hunting is more than just there and a lot more people who deserve it, but if I won,
something to do on the weekends. It’s something you live and it would mean the world to me and my dad. He always
breathe. It’s something you’re proud to do. Something you wanted me to follow my dreams, and I owe it to him to
appreciate. Something you cherish. It’s what I want to be able try. So I’m going to give it my best, because in the end
to pass down to my boy or girl someday, and I want them to that’s all you can do.
love it as much as I do. I want to be able to teach them what The amount of knowledge you can learn on a hunt is
my dad taught me, to teach them how to appreciate animals exponential. There isn’t a better teacher than hands-on
and all they do for the world. How not to take advantage of experience. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life,
a privilege given to us. How to hunt the proper way, and how you can always get better at what you love, all you have to

to hunt all manners of animals. To do that I need to be able do is practice. Even if you just practice on a dummy sitting
to hunt multiple different animals. Hunting is a dying art, in the yard. You can still get better even if you don’t think
and we need to keep the heritage alive so we are able to pass so. You will eventually see the progress you’ve made. This
it down one day to our kids and teach them the proper way is the kind of experience I want to show my kids one day. I
to hunt. Because if we don’t, the art will be lost forever. If the want to be able to see their faces when they kill their first
proper way to hunt is lost, we may never get it back. So, being deer or rabbit. Or the first time they shoot a shotgun or
able to hunt may not mean a lot to some people, but to me it is rifle, because the smile on their face would be worth every-

a way of life. And keeping the traditions of our ancestors alive thing in the world to me. This is what I want to preserve so
is everything, because without them we wouldn’t be here. everyone can enjoy hunting.

4 Off the Beaten Path