The sun shines hot on the back of freshman Mary Samano as she nocks an arrow on her bow, being careful of its position. Her arms shake ever so slightly as she pulls the string back, taking on her familiar shooting stance, eyes narrowed in the bright sunlight. With a swift gesture, she releases the string, sending the arrow flying right into the target.

Samano has admired both sports and weapons since she was a child. It was as a kid she discovered her love for archery.

Samano was scrolling through the internet on her parents’ computer, idly clicking through webpage. As she scrolled past yet another website, she saw it: a picture of a person shooting a bow. Intrigued, she clicked on that image, taking herself to an unknown website with videos on archery. She watched several of those, enchanted, before she became hooked on these things called “bows.” Years later, she still remembers these moments.

“I remember I was so excited,” she recalled, laughing. “That was probably all I talked about that day.”

Soon after Samano began attending Niles West, she joined several clubs. She soon learned of the Archery Club,  and excitedly looked into the details. She finally decided to join the club, pushing everything else aside to participate.

“I got a bunch of my friends to come with me to the first meeting, and we loved it. We’ve been going there ever since,” Samano said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely fun.”

While Samano has been working hard shooting during club meetings, others have taken note of that unrelenting hard work. One of these people is Archery Club sponsor Subica Rauf, a member of the ELL staff.

“She tries really hard. Sometimes it looks like she’s struggling a bit too much, but you can see that she really loves [archery],” Rauf said.

One of Samano’s aforementioned friends who is in the Archery Club with her, freshman Bajeel Syeda, agrees.

“She just puts so much effort into it that it gets me really motivated,” Syeda said.

Despite her love of archery, Samano isn’t sure exactly where she wants to go with this hobby of hers. The one thing she does know she wants to do is show girls that you don’t have to be a princess or a damsel in distress to be beautiful and loved.

“Just do what you love,” Samano said. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks as long as you’re happy.”