A Girl and Airsoft by Isabel

 

As a child I had a very active imagination. I would spend countless hours purposefully going from place to place in my house with a black cape tied around my neck and my mothers cuff like bracelet on my arm. Leaping from the top of the stair case or the running jump on to the bed were considered flying. The kitchen was central command from which all manner of heroics were staged. My fathers prized Texas instruments calculator, something I was not supposed to be playing with, was my ultra sophisticated computer. In my minds eye I was the graceful yet powerful superhero, like Wonder Woman or Isis, tackling each mission with technical and physical suave and prowess. But really I was a bit klutzy and would never be mistaken for a super hero of any kind. But this imagination instilled in me a belief that I could be those things I wasn't, a belief I still have. This is why as a girl I now play airsoft.

 

Truthfully this is a sport I would have never foreseen being even remotely interested in. Even though I am pretty tough when it comes to activity, physical injury and general hardiness, I am a girly girl. Unlike my husband who, contrary to his mothers reports, came out of the womb with an AKS74U, I had no previous interest in guns, er um, firearms. My interest in real steel came in applications of self protection, hunting etc. I didn't want to know much about them except the pertinent parts, basic skills and knowledge. And I really didn't want to shoot them if at all possible. But that was until I tried playing airsoft.

My husband, because of his interest in cross application of air soft replicas and reality based training, hauled me off to an indoor airsoft facility in Virginia. When I walked in to the staging area it was filled with boys in camo, full swat gear and other assorted military looking parts. Definitely a boy thing which I would support but not really participate in. So as my husband geared up and venture off in to the field, which from the video surveillance looked cool, I sat down with my emence girly novel and began to read. Some time later, sweaty and flushed, my other half returned to me and announced that he loved it. And of course he would, he's a boy and he is playing with guns. This was to begin a love affair I could not have anticipated.

With enthusiastic encouragement I was persuaded to play. The preparation for this was quite intensive. I had to pick out what I was going to wear, kind of fun. I got to pick out what I was going to use, even more fun. We planed out our time table, what were going to eat, who we were going to hang out with, ah a social event. This was getting better and I hadn't even played. So with much more enthusiasm, I payed the field fee and got kitted up. My first few games were confusing. Lots of running in aimless direction. I didn't really understand what the objectives were, how I should move, how to keep from getting hit. I would just follow along, at least it was exercise. And then it happened.

 

I finally got teamed up with my husband who as you have been told, from birth is well versed in these types of things. He briefly educated me on where to go and how to position my self. So there we are in Hells Kitchen, guarding multiple different hallways and doors. I was to guard in one direction and was told to shoot whomever came down that way. And so we waited. I heard my husbands AEG purr, he got some one. I am waiting. I hear that purr again, I am still waiting. And then I see a shadow and the faint out line of a person. I wait. And then I fire. BBs spray in a direct line. My AEG hums, my aim is true. The unfortunate guy leaps a mile in the air screaming “I'm hit, I'm hit”. I watched in amazement, the flailing arms and dancing legs. I had caused this, my first frag. It is such a great feeling I almost don't want to quit firing. I just wanted to watch the squirming a bit longer. All of a sudden I feel like I am back in my kitchen, eight years old with all the skill and knowledge to defeat the opposition. I realize that this is wear my fantasy comes true. I can actually learn this. I can develop skill and knowledge with out the danger of trying to fly. This is where I become who I thought I was, but more so. What I take from the field can be used in every day life. Stealth strategy, physical agility, replica control all apply. The confidence gained on the field follows me in to a store, a job, a situation. Playing airsoft is the perfect merger of fantasy, reality, team work and camaraderie.

I am a girl who plays airsoft, not a woman or even a lady. I am a girl because this is where all of the simplicity of child hood games, ideals and wholesome enthusiasm have a life of their own. This is where we girls and boys are free to have a great time locked in gaming combat. And when it is all over we can pack our gear and return refreshed to our daily adult worlds, carrying the knowledge we have learned from our alternate life, but ready to return to it again.

 

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