Jon Smith was walking through the woods of  Bath, Ohio, in the waning days of fall when he stumbled upon a peculiar sight. High in a tree, bow in one hand, math textbook in the other sat a kid, eyes fixed on the hundreds of feet of underbrush below, and eternally hoping for the buck of a lifetime. He noticed him plodding through a backpack full of homework, and understandably was a bit confused. What he was witnessing was a Revere student continuing a generations-long tradition, and loving every minute of it.

The Smith family are outdoorsmen by the very definition of the word, and all it takes is a stroll through their family’s lake house to truly understand that. With a mere glance, decades of pictures depicting memories of great times are visualized, all made out in Mother Nature. These pictures depict an extensive family tree, kept closely knit through a myriad of memories. Each of these snapshots is deeply linked with a warm memory, and all it takes is a single question for that memory to be realized. Among these pictures is a fairly new one. The photo depicts a kid in a tree, doing his best to multitask.

Nate Smith, much like the many generations before him, is an outdoorsman. Whether it be backpacking, skiing, or just wandering his backyard, Smith enjoys any activity that gets him out of the house and into the great outdoors. Though naturally one of these stands out among the rest, and that is hunting. 

“Hunting has always been a really big part of my life. Ever since I was little I remember my Dad dragging us into the woods and setting us up in a tree,” Smith said.

Jon Smith is Smith’s father, Smith’s introduction to hunting and the person who lit the flame in him. Jon explained how he found his passion for hunting, and what it has meant for him.

“When I was a kid, my father and I would hunt. He and my grandfather did the same. You could go back years and see the same pattern. The memories that I have made in the woods are some of the best I’ve ever made, and being able to make some of those with my kids is awesome. It’s not just the memories though. The lessons and things I’ve learned about life have played a big role in my life. It sounds cliche but every time I go out I learn something new about life. To be able to lead the next generation to those same realizations has become a driving force in my own life, ” Smith’s Father said.

While Smith loves to do what he is passionate about, there are some drawbacks, especially when it comes to his favorite time of year, deer season.

“In my opinion deer season is the most fun to hunt. But since it normally lasts from mid-November to early December, there’s some clear overlap between the hunt and school. So, like any extracurricular, you have to find a balance between the two,” Smith said. 

This balance between the thing he loves and his schoolwork was instilled in him at a young age by his mother Elizabeth. She explained her experience with Smith’s passion.

“I love how passionate Nate is about hunting, but school will always come first. Ever since he was pretty young I would make sure all his work was done before he would go out… He is good at getting his point across though, and one day he was able to persuade me to let him do both at once,” Smith’s mother said.

Smith’s solution to his problem was an unexpected one.

“I got to thinking and realized something. All of the time I spend doing homework I could be spending out in a tree stand, another place I spend a lot of time not doing much. It took a bit of convincing, but one day I found myself scrambling up a tree, bow, and book in hand,” Smith said.

This strategy would yield some surprising results. 

“It was one of those ideas that seems bad in your head, but once you try it works out. What I started to find was that working up there didn’t make the work any more fun, but put me in a unique place to do it. A place that I loved to be. Doing the work up there not only made my experience better, but I felt it was making me a better hunter,” Smith said.

Since this discovery, Smith has continued his strategy. Sitting high in his tree Smith plods through his homework. And occasionally his hours of waiting have paid off. 

“I was sitting in my stand graphing points for a math project when I heard something. I looked up to see a monster. The buck was the biggest I had ever seen. He was standing the perfect distance from me and was at just the right angle. I slowly dropped my math book, picked up my bow, and shot,” Smith said.

As it would turn out this was no ordinary deer, however.

“When I finally tracked it down it turned out the deer was a ten pointer. As far as anyone could remember no one in my family had ever been so lucky to get anything over a seven. Meaning this was the biggest one any member of my family had ever gotten. I was ecstatic,” Smith said.

This achievement by Smith was the culmination of hours of waiting. This fueled by a deep passion for hunting. A passion so deep that it extended beyond simply the hunt for an animal. Smith set out on a hunt for a better way to do what he loved, and that was his real trophy.

Though he got the buck of a lifetime he can still be found high in a tree working through his homework, waiting for another great buck. All while making memories, and learning valuable life lessons, just as his forefathers did before him, and who he is now among on the walls of his lake house forever.

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