Aya's Life Off The Range
Indeed, it may
appear that all I do is shoot a bow and arrow. Many people have never seen me
without a bow in hand… even when I sleep! But there is life beyond the archery
range... And while I initially knew that I needed to focus 150% on archery to
reach the highest levels, I realized after some time that I was missing other
hobbies I had before dedicating my life to competitive archery. By stepping
away from archery, I feel this has given me a much better perspective of
myself. I recognize that I had become so serious that I was no fun to be around
for others and for myself.
For a few years,
I fell into a slump because I was plagued with an onslaught of health issues...
one thing after another… If someone got sick, injured, or run over by a golf
cart at Nationals, it was almost certain to be me. As one judge commented, “If
Aya had no bad luck; she’d have no luck at all!” Well, the harder I tried, the
worse I got... physically and mentally. But then I realized… that was
my problem… I was trying too hard. And by doing so, I started falling out of
love with the sport… the glue that kept me together to win numerous gold medals
was getting brittle and crumbling under the strain.
So I woke up and
realized that I could be an archer and be myself…
I absolutely love
long distance running, cycling (road and mountain) and hiking old railway lines.
Also my study and deep interest in civil engineering takes me twice a year to a
large Eisenbahn RR Museum in Essen, Germany to help rebuild rail track. This
also fires my passion for Railroad Bridges which I avidly photograph around the
world.
I love to read
and you will often see my nose buried in a historical book between shooting at
tourneys. I am a longtime student of Cold War history and its iconic symbol:
the Berlin Wall. From my research, I scratch build scale models of various
Bridges and different generations of the Berlin Wall… and yes, you may have
noticed a model or two accompanying me to events… serving to remind me that I do
not need to fear failure when I have other things in life to enjoy. Allowing
my brain to do something other than archery has been very rewarding, both as a
person and an athlete. Please see my galleries and enjoy Aya – “Off the Range”
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