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.

【紅霞譯文】

        青少年戶外活動日好就好在把人吸引到大自然來，再加上賓州蒙哥馬利郡又鼎力資助，但凡九至十五歲適齡中小學生都可以參加今天舉辦的各種趣味活動，讓他們遠離電腦做點更有意義的實事。

        首先，我很抱歉自己屬於那種說得比唱得還好聽的正人君子。假如您尚未察覺，我正打算坐到計算機旁開始書寫這篇報道，除此而外，文中所述並不包括十三歲或其以上的青春期少年。沒錯，要不是很多學弟學妹一聽到霰彈爆炸便哭喊尖叫，好像後坐力打斷了骨頭似的，我情願整天去打獵槍。觸景生情，我禁不住聯想起自己頭一回切身經歷，說來這項活動真的不太適合小孩子，記得當時我年過十載，槍托反彈把我的肩膀打得青一塊紫一塊，要知道瘀傷由藍黃色轉變成青色過程中肌肉感覺很痛。若不撒謊，我敢說九歲大的兒童並不喜歡釣魚，久置河邊苦苦等上半個鐘頭，期間還要不住地給魚鈎換上來回蠕動的蚯蚓作魚餌，沒人愛幹這種膩歪事，對不？有位哥們一口氣釣了十條魚，顯然靠它糊口度日不成問題，而我天大的本事就是錯把上鈎的小魚拽到河的對岸，怪對不住那個傢伙。不過細想起來，我的確釣到什麼玩藝，是樹魚，而且一連兩次。

        如同往年一樣，步槍打靶大概是所有遊藝項目中最好玩的一個，因為毋庸擔憂槍托後坐力或者槍口濺出火花，所以這裡成了大夥較量槍技高低的場所。靶場比賽相對公平，人人條件均等，除我例外，右眼有點近視，幸好視力並沒差到配戴眼鏡的地步，可瞄準鏡非得用右眼來看，因此我幾乎瞎猜一氣。靶子呈正方形，上面畫有紅線標記，但對我而言意義不大，我盯住靶面，總算懵得八九不離十。步槍打靶很火，大家反覆上手的機會有限，我稍有失手打偏一次靶子，結果其餘的雖彈不虛發也難以扭轉乾坤。

        讓少年兒童接觸槍支的弊端在於，他們長大之後或許根本不把武器當回事，你知道眼見一位三年級的頑皮幼童手持子彈上膛的獵槍或者四年級的愣頭小子端起步槍朝靶心掃射該有多麼可怕。此時此刻，我內心也是矛盾重重，藉助射擊來激發孩子對電子遊戲以外事物的積極性並不為過，其實打槍反倒讓電子遊戲變得真實化。無論怎樣，恐怕以後我都不會再來，畢竟這種教育理念對我有點過時。坦率地說，我更愛守在熒光屏前悠哉游哉而不願到現實中真槍實戰，這並非說明我害怕因風向轉變可能會造成槍支走火或發生其它意外。

相關博文：

2013年蒙郡青少年野營日(2013 MontCo Youth Field Day)