When I was 10 my best friend Jacob asked me if I wanted to go fishing with him and his step-dad, Jerry. Being a ten year old boy who had never fished in his life, naturally I said yes. I had never fished before. I fished in video games and I watched people do it on tv and in movies but I had never done it myself. I was very nervous to go fishing for the first time but I was also very excited. Kind of like the time I went hunting for the first time with my brother Alex. I remember him and i walking through the grass towards the tree blind talking about what i should do. “you have to stay completely silent and you cant move or the deer will get spooked and run away” i followed his advice and stayed as quiet as possible. We got into the blind, sat down, and watched the woods for any movement whatsoever. He told me that he was going to take a nap and to tell him if i saw anything. He went to sleep and I watched the woods for about 10 minutes until i finally saw a 6 point buck walk right in front of the tree blind and just stand there. I was so shocked and nervous. All i could think to do was not make a single sound. I slowly nudged my brother and it startled him so he jumped and the deer ran away. The fact that the deer ran away killed me because it was so close and i scared my brother so it ran off. I was nervous going into the woods because i thought i would make a noise, scare the deer off, and we wouldn't be able to bring anything home. I haven't set foot in that tree stand since. All I wanted was to be able to catch something and bring it home to my family but I knew that I had no skill and no experience so I probably wouldn't take home anything bigger than a minoe. Jacob’s uncle has a house in the middle of the woods. The house is surrounded by trees, grass and dirt roads that nobody ever drives down. The entire time we were driving there the only thing i could focus on was how mesmerizing it was to watch the trees pass the car window. We pulled in the driveway of what seemed to be a neglected, old, dirty blue house. The light  blue paint was chipped, the gray gutter was broken, the house was a mess, and a red truck sat on the grass that looked like it had been there for a long time. Jacob said his uncle lived there but It looked like no one had stepped foot in that house in months. As I expected nobody was there so we went around the house and into the back yard. Jacobs uncle had a big green pond with a fountain in the middle surrounded by frogs,turtles, and fish. The pond was surrounded by big bushy trees with branches that drooped down over it and a dock that lead into the middle of it all. A picnic table sat next to the dock. I sat my grey tackle box down on the table and took off my blue ripped Detroit Lions Jersey because swimming was my first priority. Jerry jokingly said "Watch out for the snapping turtles"  which automatically made me feel like the pond was a danger zone so the craving to swim was quickly replaced with caution and fear. Jerry picked up my fishing pole, lead me out into the middle of the pond and handed me my pole. "All you have to do is hold the release and throw your pole forward, but don't actually throw it" I kinda laughed but I was too nervous to fall in because of the previous comment he had made about the snapping turtles. Jerry continuing to give me advice added “When the bobber goes under the water, reel in the line because that means you caught something.” Taking that advice into consideration i decided to started baiting my hook. I carefully stabbed my slimy worm with the hook while my face turned as green as the pond. Most of my lifestyle had included staying inside, eating junk food, and playing video games. I never really got a chance to get my hands dirty with anything so this made me learn that when it came to touching slimy, living creatures I was a huge baby. The worm was poorly placed on the hook due to my intense need to vomit, but it did the job. I cast my line into the pond and watched as the bobber created ripples in the water. The bobber bobbed up and down for a couple seconds. Those couple seconds seemed like the longest and quietest couple seconds of my entire life. Then suddenly the bobber shot under the water and I pulled as hard as I possibly could and the line instantly started pulling me towards the water. Jacob and Jerry both jumped into the water and grabbed the line. The strain on the line was incredible and three people couldn't even pull it ashore easily. When we all finally got a good grip on it we pulled it ashore and the water revealed a huge, big eyed, crazy cat fish. Immediately Jacob said “It looks like your first fish is a big one!” That catfish was the first fish I had ever caught and it was a fish bigger than anything I ever thought I would ever catch. The fish had to have been 3 and a half feet long. It had huge eyes which made it click in my head that I had actually caught a huge fish, but those eyes they were hard to look for long at while it was flipping around in my hand. The fish was moving and jumping so much that the gills ended up cutting my hand leaving a paper cut sized battle wound to show all the ladies back at home. Instantly i wanted to keep it so we put the giant fish in a bucket and put it in the car. After we had stayed and continued to fish for about an hour We took the fish to my aunts house in hope that she would take it in as one of her own but unfortunately her fish tank was full and he was too big to fit in it, so him staying with me was no option. Catching that fish made me feel like the coolest kid in the entire world. All i heard all day was “whoa! thats a big fish!” and “Good job josh!” it was really the first time i was ever really proud of myself and it made me realize that you should never sell yourself short and tell yourself that you can't do something, because sometimes you might surprise yourself with the things that you are capable of doing. We took him back to Jacob’s uncles house, placed him in the water, and watched as he swam away into the cloudy green pond. It was a shame that i had to throw him back, but I was still looking forward to going home and telling my dad all about the big fish I caught.

After that day, I learned that just because I don’t do a wide variety of things doesn’t mean I’m scared to do them. I learned that I’m actually good at fishing I had just never done it before and hadn’t showed myself what I am capable of doing. I became a more open minded person after I finally caught my first fish.. I learned that in life if fail then you try and try again until. you succeed.