Gun writer\nDuane Thomas is one of my graduates and an old friend. He has given me permission to share the\nfollowing story with you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am going to share this story, just\nbecause I think it\u2019s so cool.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A friend of mine, Rita, has two\ndaughters, the younger is named Cayla. Cayla is petite, fine-boned,\nblond-haired, gray-eyed, pretty, strong-willed, verbal, and as Rita puts it,\n\u201ctakes no crap from anyone.\u201d At the time the events recounted in this story occurred,\nCayla was eight years old.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, Rita has already run\nCayla through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test, and Cayla is an\nESTP. Each of the 16 MBTI personality types has its own little few-words\ndescription. ESTP is the sign of The Athlete. These are people who tend to have\nnaturally good hand-eye coordination; they also tend to be able to learn new\nphysical skills comparatively effortlessly. When Cayla was in martial arts\ntraining, she could watch the instructor perform the moves a few times, then\ninstantly perform them flawlessly herself. ESTPs also have such innately good\nawareness of their surroundings, they’re almost impossible to sneak up on.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I will also mention, Cayla is a\nbudding little gun nut. When her mother brings her guns back from the range and\nhas them spread out over the kitchen table for cleaning, Cayla is FASCINATED.\nShe\u2019s bellied up to the table, leaning over it to get closer, she practically\nhas her little nose stuck inside the gun.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And now, the story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rita said to me, \u201cI was going to CVS\nto drop off a prescription. I took Cayla into the store with me. I was standing\nthere in line. You ever suddenly get that sense someone else is just way too\nclose to you? I looked around and the guy in line behind me was standing WAY\ntoo close. Just obviously trying to invade my space and intimidate me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere was a sign standing there that\nsaid something like RESPECT OTHER PEOPLE\u2019S SPACE DON\u2019T STAND TOO CLOSE. I\nreached out and tapped it with my fingernail, and actually had my mouth open to\ntell him to back off when the pharmacist called me up. So I went up to the\ncounter, which entailed turning my back on him. Cayla planted her back against\nthe counter, folded her arms and glared at the guy. There was no way he was\nsneaking up on her Mommy with Cayla on the job!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe pharmacist tells me it\u2019s going\nto be two hours before the prescription is ready to pick up. On the way out of\nthe store, Cayla says, \u2018Mommy, that man was creepy.\u2019 I was so proud of her.\nEight years old, and she didn\u2019t need to be told there was something off about\nthat guy. She didn\u2019t need to be told he was acting inappropriately. She didn\u2019t\nneed to be told he was creepy. She just knew.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo we go sit out in the car in the\nparking lot, run the AC, listen to music, chat, just killing the two hours. But\nwe\u2019re also watching the store entrance, and we don\u2019t see the guy come out. Two\nhours goes by, I say to Cayla, \u2018We have to go in and pick up that prescription\nnow.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2019Mommy, that creepy man is still in\nthere.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2019Yes, he is. But we\u2019re not going to\nnot pick up the prescription just because he\u2019s in there. And there\u2019s no way I\u2019m\ngoing to leave you out here alone, you\u2019re going to have to come in with me.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo we go into the store. And Cayla\u2019s\nhead is on a swivel. Total 360-degree danger scan. We get up to the counter,\nagain she stands with her back against it, looking out into the rest of the\nstore. She doesn\u2019t need to be told to put something solid at her back, she\ndoesn\u2019t need to be told to position herself so that no one can get to her, or\nme, before she sees them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI get the prescription. We\u2019re\nwalking through the store on our way out. Again, Cayla\u2019s head is on a swivel.\nShe says to me, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, Mommy. I got your six.\u2018\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gun writer Duane Thomas is one of my graduates and an old friend. He has given me permission to share the following story with you: I am going to share this story, just because I think it\u2019s so cool. A friend of mine, Rita, has two daughters, the younger is named Cayla. Cayla is petite, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6483"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6487,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions\/6487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}