I just couldn't help it. I tried to stamp it down, but it was hopeless. The broad smile crept onto my face and as my target glided back toward the firing line, I could see five small holes of light showing through the paper. All five were within the eight-inch circle, and one was in the black bull's-eye. I stood there, stunned to have fired a semi-automatic weapon for the first time in my life, and even more stunned that I had done it better than every one of the five other people who were shooting off rounds with me. It was the first time I had ever been good at a sport. Chalk it up to being raised by a working mom, having asthma or simply genetic bad luck, but I always came in last at relays and hit feeble singles during softball games. Still, over the years I came to develop a deep love of sports and it killed me to be so bad at something that I loved so much. So I did what I could, enlisting people to teach me the rules of every sport they knew, only leading me to love the games even more.

But I've never known the power of hitting a home run, the thrill of winning a race or the satisfaction of getting a tennis ball to land perfectly on the court, and the frustration has always taken its toll.

But all that changed when I fired the .22 caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic. Finally, I had potential in a sport. Firing a 9mm Browning semi-automatic, a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver and a .45 caliber Kimber semi-automatic, I felt the surge of power and accomplishment that had been missing all those years. With every shot I sank into the middle of a target, I held my chin a little higher, my back stood a little straighter and my smile grew a little broader.

I wasn't perfect-far from it. My arms trembled and shots sometimes went astray, but I walked out of the firing range feeling as if I had shot nothing but straight bull's-eyes, and knowing that maybe one day I actually could do that... if I keep practicing.

It's odd that a twenty-year-old girl from mid-town Manhattan would find happiness with a gun in her hand and a target to terrorize, but the unique blend of challenge, skill and art in shooting is everything I was looking for. I've found a sport where I can hold my own, and I'm going to hold onto that for the rest of my life.