After my post yesterday, and the lack of comments on the post, I thought my coverage of local events might be boring a few of you. In light of that I decided to go a little more light-hearted with today’s post, and I hope that generates comments and keeps a few of you from falling asleep.:)

I work in the technology field. Now, I don’t want to get into too much detail about what I do, or where I do it, but at least you have an idea of what my job function is. Of course working with computers and technology automatically puts you in a category. You all know what I’m talking about: The he’s-a-pocket-protector-wearing-geeksquad-computer-nerd category. I love being stereotyped though. It makes for great conversation.

I remember the first time I walked into a room to help a particular gentleman with his computer. He had animal mounts all over his “office”, and curiosity got the best of me, so I started asking questions. Where did you shoot the elk? Did you shoot and catch all of these mounts? Then I proceeded to tell him about the eight point I shot with my bow just a few years earlier. It didn’t take me long to realize that he thought I was from another planet. “Who are you again?” he asked. “I’m here to fix your computer.” I replied. You could tell the conversation was about to start. After explaining to him multiple times that I did in fact work in technology AND hunt, he finally started to believe me. It just took him some time to digest the fact that I could do both-work with computers/technology and hunt. See, I told you it makes for great conversation sometimes.

I used to be bothered by the stereotyping, but now I think it is great. It has allowed for many a conversation about hunting, fishing, and the outdoors with people who normally wouldn’t hear about these kinds of things. To be honest all of the conversations have been positives one’s as well. Even if the particular individual didn’t hunt, they were always open to listening about my passion. It allowed for the communication lines to open up, sometimes just because of the simple fact that they were so shocked, but I still took the opportunity in stride. Any opportunity that I get to promote my way of life, and explain it in a way other than what they normally would hear from the evening news and PETA, I think, is a good thing.

I do realize that I’m not the only one in my field who enjoys the outdoors. Plenty of other people at my work enjoy the outdoors as well. But the message I’m trying to convey is you never know, regardless of what kind of company you’re in, who is “open” to our way of life. Just as people shouldn’t stereotype me because of my job function, we, as hunters, fisherman, and outdoorsmen, shouldn’t stereotype others either. We should take their different lifestyle choices, be open to them, and take an opportunity to explain our lifestyle choice in the process.

You just never know who might be listening, and changing their opinion about the beer-gut-cigarette-smoking-drunkened-NASCAR-fan-hunter that everyone associates with hunting.

Popularity: 2% [?]