I’m a huge fan of The Big Bang Theory. The main characters love playing paintball and I’ll never forget when Sheldon “sacrifices” himself, says “geology is not a real science” and then got shot like a hundred times (never understand why he just hates geology). So when my classmate asked if anyone wanna join his paintball team, I raised my hand immediately. Well, I thought that would be the best way to celebrate after finishing nearly all the tests by shooting at some strangers, or the other way around.
But when we got the paintball field, I suddenly realized it would be more like “the other way around”. We thought we would fight each other, that felt kind of fair cause we were all rookies. It turned out all the players together were separated into two teams. That’s totally different! Some people got plans for each map, they had professional gears, even the way they shot looked like real soldiers and I saw some people even crawling in the mud. The only thing I knew was we got to wear overalls, that’s it. We played six maps and almost every time I just followed those professionals and waited until the time was up.
Looked quite happy–before the fight…
However, when the fight actually started, waiting behind was not a good idea either. The paintball gun is quite heavy and the bullets have really unpredictable trajectories. There were a lot of obstacles and trees on the battlefields, which means you think you are shooting at someone, but in the end the bullet can go literally anywhere. A friend of mine got “killed” almost every time by stray bullets. Besides, all the players were wearing camouflage and googles, you can only tell who’s on your team or not by a very small armband and that was not helpful at all. So, when everybody looked nearly all the same and with those random shots, you can imagine what kind of chaos that could be.
And when I was struggling to survive, some players were either really into it or just being weird. My friend said one of her teammate asked her, “Can I shoot you?” and then the person said “just feel like doing so”. I guess…I don’t know, shell-shock??? Also I’m not trying to blame anyone, but some people, unlike those professionals, they were just shooting at wherever they wanted. When I was lying on the ground, tried to figure out which way to push forward, I got shot twice on the back by friendly fire. I mean, come on guys! I was fighting for you! L Lots of unexpected things could happen on the battlefield, like someone rushed out of nowhere, tried to cross the bridge, and didn’t realize there were 10 enemies waiting right in front of him and yelling “we only got five seconds left, shoot everything you have!” And then it was just like what Sheldon did…
“Geology isn’t a real science!” scene.
Anyway, I had a wonderful day, even I was exhausted in the end. It was quite painful when I got shot by these plastic bullets. Imagine what the real bullets will be like and what how cruel it can be in a real war. I guess that’s something worth thinking about.
Cassie's fish tank 