Kalina Duncheva

PE Credits & Archery

Apart from taking all of your major courses and completing your distributive and foreign language requirements as a Dartmouth student, you also need to complete three physical education (PE) courses. Fortunately, there are many options to choose from, including dance groups and club sports. To complete my first PE credit, I decided to take on archery this term.

The first time I used a bow in my life was probably when I was six years old. I really wanted to be like Robin Hood, because this was my favorite Disney movie, and my dad carved me a bow out of a wooden stick. Then he tied a rope to it and made me three arrows (of a few smaller sticks). I also had a green hat made out of a lilac's leaf and a feather sticking out of my leaf-hat. I was the real Robin Hood :).

As with every cool possession you have when you're a kid, I lost my bow. To be honest, I think I first lost my arrows, THEN my bow. Or… you know what? I actually lost my hat first. Long story short, I gave up archery for a l-o-n-g time. Until this term!

I was a little skeptical and afraid that I was not going to like archery at all–what if I'm helplessly bad at it? Well… the first three arrows I shot went a meter (sorry, three feet) over the target and then went crashing down to the ground as they hit the heavy net behind the target. But there was progress! The second three arrows landed on the blue and black markings of the target. Before I could shoot my third batch of arrows, though, Eric and Shawn taped a doll to the target. We all agreed that it was best not to give it a name…

So the third time I shot… Well… Let's just say that you can, after all, make a Robin Hood out of me.