Sam Snyder

I, Sam Snyder, am an outdoorsman. No matter the period of my life, nature and my connection to the great outdoors always remained present. As a young child, I have fond memories of Cub Scouts in which I spent multiple weekends sleeping in a tent, catching some of my first fish, and telling ghost stories around a fire with my friends. I loved the fresh air, freedom, and wild-life to discover. My love for the outdoors only grew as I aged. I joined the Boy Scouts of America, and continued to experience new exciting adventures every month camping all across the South East. I’d be sleeping on a beach in a hammock one month, riding down the Ocoee River the next, and climbing a mountain the following month. I even spent two weeks traveling over a hundred miles through the mountains of New Mexico with just a tent and the items I could fit in my backpack. Each of these experiences are among the countless memories of camping that showed me the fun, refreshing nature of the great outdoors. My love for the outdoors is seeded in memories of fun camping trips; nonetheless, I am not an outdoorsman solely due to the fun of being outside in the woods.

I am, moreover, an outdoorsman because I respect the earth that we are all so lucky to inhabit. Along my journey to Eagle Scout, I learned various lessons such as the outdoor code and leave no trace. These mottos emphasize that it's our responsibility to take care of the great forests in which we visit so that others may enjoy the forests themselves in the future. My family’s tradition of passing down the lessons on how to hunt deer and other wildlife for sustenance further reinforced my respect for the great outdoors. Every individual holds their own opinion in regards to meat consumption, but as a meat eater being a part of the whole process of hunting, harvesting, cooking, and serving venison is immensely rewarding. The deer I hunted lived long lives out in the wild with no interference from people, and knowing that the food I put on my plate comes directly from the wild source and not a factory farm makes me proud to renew my hunting license every year. Hunting, furthermore, showed me the importance of following the rules of conservation as the government organizations regulating hunting set tag limits on hunters so that we all may live off the land and preserve the species that feed us.

Whether it be the free range food it provides or the new places to explore, my trusty tent and the great outdoors remains my true home.