My Colorful Adventure

When people said the word paintball the image that came to my mind was someone in a ridiculous uniform, sweaty and injured. The idea of going to a paintball field never crossed my mind because everyone said “it’s a guy’s thing, besides everyone gets hurt at the end”. I forgot about that sport, or whatever it was, and never thought of it again until I was in freshman year in high school.

February, 2009, it was one of my friends’ birthday. As I read the invitation I noticed it said: “come and join me to celebrate my birthday in Campo Gotcha”. At that moment I remembered all the bad things paintball include, injuries, sweat and ugly uniforms with bad smell. I was sad because I really wanted to spend that day with my friends but there was no way I was going to that horrible place.

When I got home I showed the invitation to my mom and to my surprise she didn’t told me not to go, on the contrary, she wanted me to go. She told me it was an incredible experience and that it was very fun. I was like, “yea right, being hit by a paintball sounds like the funniest thing on earth, no way!” After thinking about it over and over again, I decided maybe I should go. “I am not a coward”, I repeated to myself, “Besides, mom says it’s fun”. So that was when I decided to go to what was going to be an amazing experience or the worst in my whole life. I guess I was a little dramatic at that time but I was nervous.

While my friends and I were in the car everyone sounded so excited about playing and there was a moment when I actually felt excited too. It was going to be an adventure! Well, my adventure didn’t start as well as I thought. We had to use a big uniform that smelled like men’s sweat and a very uncomfortable mask. There was a lady at the entrance with a whistle; and every time you didn’t pay attention to her safety instructions she would blow that thing as hard as she could and then scream. I had never heard any person on this Earth scream the way she did! One of the men who worked there gave us our guns and explained us the basic rules in order to play. “Rule number one, and the most important, never take the mask off while playing; rule number two, never shoot someone who is too close to you; and never take the gun’s secure off when you are out of the field or you can hurt someone”. As I entered the field I was trying to calm myself down. They were my friends and I was sure they were not going to hurt me. Then I realized that my face was all covered and I had this big, green Santa Clause like, uniform. Nobody was going to know it was me they were shooting! I froze and didn’t move during the entire first battle. I was so scared I faked someone hit me so I could leave that horrible place. But things started to get better in the next fight. I convinced myself I could do it, fear was not going to keep me from having fun. I started shooting and running and in a blink of an eye everything turned out from horrible to fun. My heart was pounding very fast as I ran across the field and I felt like a hero. It was amazing. Even thought those paintballs do hurt a lot, at that moment I didn’t care. All I was thinking about was how much I was enjoying myself.

When it was over I was feeling very tired but it was the kind of tiredness you feel when you have spent all day long doing something you enjoy. My jeans were a mess, full of mud, dirt and weird plants that had attached to me for being that much time on the ground. My body was full of paint of different colors; I looked like a colorful collage, even my teeth were blue because of the paintballs. But it was all right, I didn’t care about my clothing, besides those things happen all the time when you go on adventure, I think. I loved this experience and I still go to Campo Gotcha every once in a while. I confess I still get nervous at the beginning, but I always say to myself, “Don’t let fear keep you from having fun”.