UNITED STATES—This weekend, I did something for the first time that I had never done before. You might be asking yourself what? I went paintball shooting. Yes, it sounds a bit crazy, but it was a lot of fun. Heck, it was something my nephew wanted to do for his birthday so I was all game. What I didn’t’ prepare for was the heatwave of temperatures and that I hadn’t properly dressed for the occasion.

First off, I was slightly nervous about paintball shooting. I had never done it before, so I had no idea what to expect or if when pelted with a paintball if it would hurt. Whenever, I think of paintball shooting I always equate things back to the movie “Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives.” I mean let’s be honest, how many people do you talk to who avidly discuss the notion of going paintballing.

To give you a better description of how things work, you are shooting an actual gun, but it utilizes air to give the pressurization for the paintball to fire. Hmm, how can I describe a paintball, it’s a small round ball, no bigger than the size of a blueberry. When that paintball hits something at speeds of around 80 to 100 mph it explodes, spilling paint over your clothing. Well in my case, over my arms and legs.

Why do you ask? I was the idiot who didn’t dress properly and chose to wear shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. So not only were my legs exposed, so where my arms and it became clear that my legs and my arms were primary targets for my opponents. The first game we played was something known as ‘Speedball’ which sees two teams during their best to take out the other team. In the midst of paintballs firing all over the place, you have to stand behind these large wheel barrels to protect from being shot.

The first paintball to strike me literally hurt like hell, as it caught me just below the kneecap. It was so painful that I started to bleed, which had everyone shocked. Was I in panic mode no, it was just a bit of blood, but the bruise is still there, just like the one on my left shoulder. I think my sister purposely shot me there twice, because gosh that bruise is still tender.

While that was fun, it was even more fun when we got the opportunity to go out into the actual woods and fire paintballs at one another. However, I didn’t expect 2 things: lots of insects and lots of mosquitos. Jeez, I hate mosquitos and while I was busy hiding in the brush I was getting swarmed by mosquitos that were after my blood on both of my legs and both of my arms. My arms are not as bad, but gosh my legs are in some much pain this week. I literally have about 15 mosquito bites on both of my legs and about 5-6 bites on both of my arms, and a single bite on my hand. I hate mosquitos, I really do, but I had no idea we’d be in an environment where I’d be swarmed by these pesky insects.

My nephew is slick cause he should have warned me to wear clothing that covered my legs and my arms. I now know that for next time. Oh, trust me there will be a next time, cause I had such a ball with paintball shooting that I’m already thinking this is something that would be great for our family reunion that we’re planning in 2017. I’m just dying to get a bunch of the oldies out in the field and firing paintballs at them. Can you imagine the chaos and fun? I know I can.