In addition to their academic and extracurricular interests, many students have incredible hobbies which are entirely different from their studies. Trang “Trish” Lam, for instance, is a pre-med student in her senior year who’s also familiar with the bow and arrow.
Though Lam enjoys plenty of outdoor activities, such as volleyball, swimming and hiking, she finds archery especially challenging and enjoyable.
Lam’s love for archery
This hobby has been a somewhat recent development in her life, as she picked it up around her sophomore year of college.
“My partner introduced me to archery on a date about two years ago. I never did archery before then. I remember spending three hours doing archery on that date before we went out to grab dinner. I was not very good, but I did get very close to a bullseye on that day.”
Like with many sports, archery requires training and dedication to learn the finer parts of aiming and figuring out the arrow’s trajectory.
“Practice is very important to develop the accuracy and precision needed in archery. I would say practice is very important in almost anything that we do if we want to master something. Hard work will pay off eventually.”
Though school and work have left Lam with little free time, she looks forward to getting on the range when she can.
“I don’t get a lot of time to practice anymore due to my hectic schedule, but I would love to get into it again. I was definitely getting a lot better compared to when I first started, but there’s still room for a lot of improvement.”
A rewarding sport
The technical skills involved in hitting the bullseye are more challenging than they may appear. Dexterity is a must, and it takes quite a bit of strength and concentration to draw the string properly.
“When I first started, getting the arrow on the rest was difficult because I would find the arrow coming off and pointing in a different direction when I pulled the string back. The string’s resistance was another thing that gave me a hard time. Sometimes the string would be too difficult to pull back and it would be hard for me to find the strength to pull it back to the point that I needed it to be at.”
Archery has taught me that you don’t have to be good at something to do it. If you enjoy it, that is enough.”
Trish Lam
Lam has also learned to be more patient with herself as a result of the sport.
“As of right now, I would say I have a difficult time aiming. Although it’s gotten a lot better, sometimes I’m too focused on the target that my contacts dry out and I have a harder time seeing. I would have to readjust my aim after blinking and that just takes time. I have definitely become more patient because of my archery experience.”
Through archery, Lam has ultimately discovered the beauty of doing something just for the sake of doing it.
“Archery has taught me that you don’t have to be good at something to do it. If you enjoy it, that is enough. There’s no shame in being bad at something and doing it anyways. We all have to start somewhere.”
