2016-08-27

【Aiden in English】

        Youth Field Day is a great way to get people outside. With a great sponsor in Montgomery County of PA, the day features an amazing range of fun activities for children aged between 9 and 15 years old. It allows children to walk away from their computers and do something productive.

        First things first, I apologize for being such hypocrite. If you haven’t noticed, I am probably staring at a computer screen to write up this post. In addition, my word choice of children does not include ages 13 and up. Sure, I would love to shoot a shotgun at a target all day, but maybe if there weren’t so many young kids who cry at every explosion or scream like they broke a bone from the recoil. Once I really began to think of what they were acting like in connection with my first time, I realized that this event really isn’t for kids. Even when I was ten, the recoil would bruise my shoulder up pretty bad. You know it hurts when the bruise is turning green from the mixing of blue and yellow. Not going to lie, I’m also pretty sure not all nine year olds enjoy fishing. The idea of sitting on the side of a river for half an hour, constantly reapplying squirming worms to a tiny hook isn’t anyone’s favorite thing to do, right? A friend of mine caught ten fish, and apparently basically does this for a living. The closest thing I got to a catch was throwing a fish onto the side of the shore. I feel really bad for that fish. Actually, now that I think of it, I did catch something. It’s called a tree fish. I caught it twice.

        As usual, there was a target range for rifles, which is probably the highlight of the day. At this time, it is the only real way to compare gun skills from one person to another, because no one is afraid of recoil or sparks. It is a completely fair competition, where everyone is equal. Except for me, because my right eye is slightly near-sighted. It isn’t enough for glasses, but the scope only uses the right eye. Therefore, I was aiming nearly blindly. The target seemed to be marked by squares, all in red outline, so that didn’t help. I aimed at the area of them, and apparently got pretty close. As this event gets more popular, people have less turns, so I couldn’t take back that one shot that nearly missed the target, which looked extremely embarrassing in front of all the dead center shots.

        The only real issue with this idea of guns around children is that they might think the weapons less seriously when they grow up. You know how scary it is seeing a third grader holding a loaded shotgun, or a fourth-grader blasting holes into the bull’s eye with a rifle. At the same time, a conflicted side of mine says that this may introduce something interesting to a kid other than videogames. In fact, it’s almost like a videogame in real life. Either way, I’m probably not coming here ever again, simply because the concept is getting a little old. Be honest, I enjoy the comforts of a glowing screen much more than holding a gun in real life, as there really isn’t any fear of a random gust of wind to blow the direction of the gun into something or someone else.

【红霞译文】

        青少年户外活动日好就好在把人吸引到大自然来，再加上宾州蒙哥马利郡又鼎力资助，但凡九至十五岁适龄中小学生都可以参加今天举办的各种趣味活动，让他们远离电脑做点更有意义的实事。

        首先，我很抱歉自己属于那种说得比唱得还好听的正人君子。假如您尚未察觉，我正打算坐到计算机旁开始书写这篇报道，除此而外，文中所述并不包括十三岁或其以上的青春期少年。没错，要不是很多学弟学妹一听到霰弹爆炸便哭喊尖叫，好像后坐力打断了骨头似的，我情愿整天去打猎枪。触景生情，我禁不住联想起自己头一回切身经历，说来这项活动真的不太适合小孩子，记得当时我年过十载，枪托反弹把我的肩膀打得青一块紫一块，要知道瘀伤由蓝黄色转变成青色过程中肌肉感觉很痛。若不撒谎，我敢说九岁大的儿童并不喜欢钓鱼，久置河边苦苦等上半个钟头，期间还要不住地给鱼钩换上来回蠕动的蚯蚓作鱼饵，没人爱干这种腻歪事，对不？有位哥们一口气钓了十条鱼，显然靠它糊口度日不成问题，而我天大的本事就是错把上钩的小鱼拽到河的对岸，怪对不住那个家伙。不过细想起来，我的确钓到什么玩艺，是树鱼，而且一连两次。

        如同往年一样，步枪打靶大概是所有游艺项目中最好玩的一个，因为毋庸担忧枪托后坐力或者枪口溅出火花，所以这里成了大伙较量枪技高低的场所。靶场比赛相对公平，人人条件均等，除我例外，右眼有点近视，幸好视力并没差到配戴眼镜的地步，可瞄准镜非得用右眼来看，因此我几乎瞎猜一气。靶子呈正方形，上面画有红线标记，但对我而言意义不大，我盯住靶面，总算懵得八九不离十。步枪打靶很火，大家反复上手的机会有限，我稍有失手打偏一次靶子，结果其余的虽弹不虚发也难以扭转乾坤。

        让少年儿童接触枪支的弊端在于，他们长大之后或许根本不把武器当回事，你知道眼见一位三年级的顽皮幼童手持子弹上膛的猎枪或者四年级的愣头小子端起步枪朝靶心扫射该有多么可怕。此时此刻，我内心也是矛盾重重，借助射击来激发孩子对电子游戏以外事物的积极性并不为过，其实打枪反倒让电子游戏变得真实化。无论怎样，恐怕以后我都不会再来，毕竟这种教育理念对我有点过时。坦率地说，我更爱守在荧光屏前悠哉游哉而不愿到现实中真枪实战，这并非说明我害怕因风向转变可能会造成枪支走火或发生其它意外。

相关博文：

2013年蒙郡青少年野营日(2013 MontCo Youth Field Day)