Hunting and Dating (not necessarily in that order).

So I recently published a post that mentioned I noticed some similarities between my dating life and my hunting experiences.  Let me recount some of those similarities for you now.

• Before I began dating hunting...I had heard lots of stories from people who are more experienced than I am.  I had heard some very exciting and encouraging stories and some stories of disappointment as well.  But just about everyone has a story that they're willing to share.
• Before I began dating hunting...I had to invest in the proper equipment and apparel.  It would be a lost cause if I showed up wearing the wrong thing!  It could not only turn into an unsuccessful adventure, but potentially a dangerous one too.  I had to "suit up", if you will.
• When I began dating hunting...I had grossly underestimated the amount of time I would end up investing in this venture.  I expected to be successfully finished in a short amount of time.  But I ended up spending hours upon hours on my mission.
• When I began dating hunting...I found a few other people who had started at the same time as I did were far more successful than I was.  They were finished much sooner than I was, even though we began at the same time.
• After dating hunting for a while...I realized that I was making a lot of mistakes, but have no idea what those mistakes were.  I had no way of getting the clear feedback that would have helped me to improve.
• After dating hunting for a while...I would see lots of things that were not really an option to go after.  Some were just not close enough.  Some were way too afraid of being near me.  Some were completely distracted by something else.  Some were really just not acceptable for me to pursue and if I had ignored sound reasoning, I would have ended up in a bad situation if I did pursue.  
• After dating hunting for a while...I thought I had one that was going to work out really well.  But then when I took my shot,...I missed.  Looking back, I have only a vague idea of what went wrong.  But at the most basic level,...I got a little over-excited when my first genuine opportunity came along.
• The next time I'm dating hunting...will be a few months after the last time.  You know, "There's a season for everything."  I think its a good thing that there is some time to get away from it so I can be excited about it again instead of burned out.
• The next time I'm dating hunting...I think I'll have more realistic expectations.  Hopefully I won't be as worried about shooting and missing now that I've done that once and everything turned out OK. I hope to focus more on just enjoying the experience.
  

Well, I know I've talked a lot about hunting, but I gotta go so I'll let you figure out how my dating life fits in with everything...