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11 -14 Year Old Boy Group Winner
Student Name: Triston Hasty-Grant
School: Owasso 8th Grade Center
Grade: 8
Age: 13
Address: 14982 E Knightsbridge Rd
Owasso OK 74055
Phone: 918/272-4748
Teacher: Frank Blair, 918/272-6274
The Feel
Have you ever felt silence? Have you ever heard tranquility? You might think those are in reverse of each other. That’s
the feeling I get when I am bow hunting. That’s what it’s like when you are one-hundred percent in sync with nature.
Hunting in my family is tradition. The land has been passed down through the generations since before the Great
Depression, and will be passed down for many generations to come. My father and grandfather are extremely
knowledgeable and skilled hunters. They have taught me to never take more from the land than we can give back. We
plant food plots and use corn feeders in an effort to promote and develop wildlife on the farm.
When I go to the farm, I feel an enormous amount of pride and self-worth. I feel that I am part of something bigger than
myself. Although, I get another feeling when I head off into the woods. I sense that I am miniscule among the ancient
oaks and all the stories they have to tell. I feel out-manned by my quarry, whose ability to survive is far superior to mine;
whom can see with binocular vision, hear minute sound, sense any movement, and bound more gracefully and agile
than I could ever hope. Those are the challenges I must overcome.
I wake up early, clothing myself in my layers of warmth. As I walk into the trees I can feel their grandeur. I hike to my
tree stand and sit as still and quiet as humanly possible. Then, I see it… I see the sunrise, that’s when I get that feeling of
absolute tranquility. It can, at times, be hard to contemplate that this is the land that so many of my ancestors before
me walked and witnessed the same magnificent sight. Never the less, I still sit motionless and quiet. Then I hear
something walking behind me. I turn as slowly as I can. Just out of the corner of my eye, I see the monarch of the woods.
The male whitetail deer. He was an extraordinary animal, probably a one-hundred and forty-five inch deer. He was
forty-three yards away, ten yards too far. I stood as discretely as I could. Then came the question, do I sling an arrow just
a little further than I normally would? Or stick to my morals and let him come in range? I stuck to my morals, even
though my heart was racing and my emotions wanted desperately to harvest this animal.
At the end of the hunt, even though I didn’t harvest the animal, I left with pride. I knew I stuck to my family tradition of
being an ethical hunter. At the end of the day that’s what it boils down too, your family, your tradition, your heritage,
and sticking to your morals. That’s the feeling I strive for over all, to now I did what I needed to do the way it needed to
be done.