At the end of the day, I was covered in welts and bruises. My head hurt to scratch, both front and back. Every time my sleeve touched my arm, it ringed with a stinging pain. Leaning my back against the passenger seat on the way home agonized. This is what paintballing is all about.

Paintballing is my favorite pastime. On August 25, 2012, it was my second time going paintballing, though my first time at PnL in Bridgewater. I brought my friends David, Matt, and Jacob. They were all more experienced than I. My friend Dylan was kind enough to give me his gun, a Proto Rail 2008 Edition when his interest in paintball stopped. When we went to PnL I brought my Proto Rail, Jacob had his U.S Army Carver One, David had his Spyder Sonic Pro, and Matt had his Spyder Sonic. We arrived at PnL at 9:00 A.M and the story begun.

On the day we went paintballing, it was an event called, “Take The Town”. It was a special event that only comes once a year. People came from towns everywhere. People came with epensive gear, a truck load of paintballs, and experienced teamates. Before the game the referees went over the rules. The teams were divided from people with red tape, and people with blue tape around the shoulder. The special thing about this event it was the whole day match. The players on the red team signed up prior to the event so they could be defending first. Unlike numerous people and I, we hadn’t signed up in advance. Unfortunately, the whole red team was a group of hardcore paintballers.

We were brought to our staring point and the game begun with a siren. We all ran towards the town. Once we got close enough we took cover and started shooting. Twenty minutes later, I couldn’t see out of my mask because it was all fogged up. I was about to call myself out but all of a sudden a great thud hit my head and I knew I got shot. I walked back to where the net that stops paintballs from coming through, and waited until I could get back in. After being shot on the mask and on my head again, the teams swapped sides so we could defend. Defending was so much more fun because we had access to all the rooms and crawl spaces. When defending, I got shot on the mouth part of my mask, so I tasted rather disgusting paint, my arm, and three times on the back.

The most horrific part of paintballing that day was when I got shot three times on the back. We were defending, and I was on the second floor in a hallway shooting through the windows. The hallway cleared except for two other people and I. We were each shooting through our own window then all of a sudden, shots started coming through the hallway. “Take cover!” said the player to the right of me. A player on the other team must’ve reached the ramp at the end of the hallway and saw the other people and I. The player to my right tried to take out the opposing player, but ended up getting shot. It was my turn, so I peeled away from my cover that protected me from opposing players, and nervously shot whatever moved. “Great”, I sarcastically thought, he was behind his cover and I couldn’t get him. Considering he knew where I was, he started to non-stop shoot at the wooden board that helped me from not getting shot. Of course after a couple minutes he wasn’t shooting, but I knew he was looking. It was now or never. I ran for it. Unfortunately, the ground was covered in paintball muck so I couldn’t run my fastest and couldn’t shoot and run without slipping. I tried to shoot at him but wildly missed. When running for my life, I got pelted three times on the back. Luckily this didn’t hurt as bad because of my adrenaline. That experience was no doubt my favorite part of the day. Once PnL closed, my friends and I joked about our time all the way home.

Welts and bruises are always worth it in the heart racing game of paintballing. I was tempted to ask who shot me but who would want to talk to a kid at the end of a tiring day. I convinced my dad to go another time soon. Every day, I think about that unforgettable paintballing experience.