I’m a huge fan of The Big Bang Theory. The main characters love playing paintball and I’ll never forget that scene when Sheldon “sacrifices” himself by saying “geology is not a real science” and then gets shot like a hundred times (never understand why he just hates geology so much!). So when my classmate asked if anyone wanted to 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 because 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.
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 goggles, you can only tell who’s on your team or not by a very small armband. 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 a little weird. My friend said one of her teammates asked her, “Can I shoot you?” and then said “just feel like doing so”. Some people, unlike those professionals, were just shooting at wherever they wanted. When I was lying on the ground trying 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! 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…
I had a wonderful day, even if I was totally exhausted in the end. It was also quite painful to be shot by those plastic bullets. I can’t even imagine what real bullets would be like and how cruel it can be in a real war. I guess that’s something worth remembering.
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