Today I Faced Two Of My Fears

The morning began with my ritual of waking my siblings up, so that we can get started on our daily chores at the barn.  I was dreading this paticular trip to the barn, due to the undwanted creature that got away last night.  When we finally got to the barn, I did my traditional walk through checking steers making sure they had water and most importantly and cautiously looking for that unwanted creature.

The first 4 pens were good, what a relief . When I got to the last steer pen there he lay "Sleeping In the Sun". One HUGE, 3 foot rattlesnake.  My first thought was "What am I going to do?".  Panic set in immediately.   I called my dad still panicking which included tears and shaking in my boots! When He finally answered, Guess what he told me?! Well, Go home and get the shotgun.  I could not believe he expected me, the kid that is deathly afraid to shoot a gun to go get the gun and shoot the SNAKE!

By the time I got home, I was in complete hysteria, more tears and the shaking would not stop.  My mom met me on the steps in her nightgown handing me the gun.  She had no sympathy at all!  She was like "I am not going to shoot the gun!"  At that moment it hit me, our steers need me to shoot the snake!  I had to suck it up! I can do this!

So my mom and I go to the barn, I catch the steer,  I load the gun and I  fire a shot right over the snake. He doesn't move.  I missed!  So I unload the gun and slowly walk closer to take the second shot. BOOM! I missed again.  I go to take the third shot and what? I have used all my ammo. Turns out when I unloaded the gun, I didn't need to! LOL It was a semi automatic.  Shows you how much I know about this gun, not enough to be using it today!

I reload the unloaded bullet, and I prepare and slowly move toward the snake for my last and final shot.  Mind you by this point, my shoulder is killing me.  I line up the shot take a deep breath and pull the trigger. I barely hit the top of his head. -_- But Kynzie declares him dead.  My siblings and mom decide it is time to cut his head off.  Well, 1,000  hits later the head is still barley hanging on.
My moms says that my steer killed the snake before I got to the barn that morning.  My story is that I killed that HUGE 3 foot rattlesnake on the third shot and I am sticking to it!

The Life Lessons Learned:
I can do anything I put my mind to, even when it includes one of my biggest fears!
Guns are really not that bad!  It is good to know how to use one just in case.
Panicking does not help anything, take a deep breath it is going to be OK!