Five years ago I found myself sitting in a hot humid field in northwest Oklahoma. A tent that my sixteen year old and I had just pitched was behind me as I met a couple of seventeen year old boys from Iowa. They needed to borrow a hammer as they were trying to pitch their tent and had forgotten that very important tool. I didn’t know then how much that introduction would impact my life.

I contemplated what the next week would bring as I was endeavoring on something not like anything I had ever done before. My son who mostly played video games in the air conditioned bedroom had talked me into taking him a thousand miles west to play his other passion, paintball. As the weekend settled into the upcoming week I was able to meet several people from various other states and countries. Who would have known these people would come to have such a huge influence on each other in the many years to come.

Those that were camped near us began to find similarities in each other and a camaraderie among us began to form. The event being based on the 1944 invasion of Normandy had a feel of awkwardness much like our military boys of those days must have also felt. Surrounded by people you had never met in a place you had never seen. Not having the familiar comforts of home and being concerned with things that you normally don’t even think about. Such concerns as will the roof leak tonight, do we have the ability to start a fire to cook with and is that spider on the outside or inside of the tent when you wake up in the morning.

As the week progressed the bonds and ties got strengthened by various incidents. More people were met and in just a few days the group were already discussing doing it again next year. And we would return the next year.

Now it’s been five years. That sixteen year old son is now twenty-one and has also made me a grandfather. That first year group of ten or so new acquaintances has now grown to probably fifty or more. People that we see only once a year yet we continue to stay in contact with all year until we meet again. People that you will be included in news of great joy and accomplishments, people who you will lend an ear to when life gets them down. There have been degrees earned or at least invested in. Some have new wives, a couple of children have been born, stints in the military have began and some have been completed. It’s a great show that life is ever changing.

Who would have ever thought that a paintball event would bring all of this together. People would form these bonds after pushing themselves to their very physical and mental limits. They would be pushed to climb hills, walk through water, bogs and the ever rolling rocks of the area. All the while using pneumatic machines to propel a marble sized ball of paint at another with a bruising force. But this happened and continues to happen. These people from all different cultures surround this game and affect each other.

Our youth has progressed. Each year they are more prepared, they have accomplished more in their lives and they take more responsibility in the duties of the game and around camp. They remind me that I was once that kid too. Yes our youth has progressed, even in this old man of fifty-three years. They make me feel young and its great what we do together.