Campfire Talk by Dillon

August 4, 2025

Hello Everybody. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Dillon Kuhn and I am a first-year on god squad. I am entering into my sophomore year at Iowa State University – Ames campus, where I am studying supply chain management and finance. 

Now, into my talk.

It seems no matter who you are, we all have an activity, chore, or task that we dread doing.

This could range doing the dishes to taking long road trips, no matter what it is, everyone has something they hate doing.  

For the longest time, this was fishing for me. I grew up in a house with two brothers and a dad who were all obsessed with the sport. Not that theres anything wrong with fishing, but I always felt like it was pointless to cast out a line for 6 hours with a high chance of catching nothing but a couple of panfish the size of a your hand. 

Recently I took a trip to mexico for spring break with my parents, aunt and uncle, cousins, and a few of there friends. I was excited to leave home for a bit and enjoy a relaxing trip with my family.

Now my brothers werent coming on this trip so I assumed that there was no way we would be doing a charter fishing trip. I was very wrong. My uncle and dad were pumped to be doing deep sea fishing in mexico. I originally was gonna ask my dad if we could do any other excursion but he had his mind set on fishing. 

We woke up on our 4th day of our trip at about 5:30am and headed to a marina where we were picked up and driven out to sea. I had little hope early in the fishing trip as 3 people on the boat were seasick 30 minutes in and we were driving through 7 foot swells, 16 miles off the coast of mexico.

The trip started to get better but I wasnt amazed by the fishing. We had caught a few decent sized bonitas and I was feeling ready to head back to shore. This was until my cousins boyfriend nick and I both hooked on the fish at the same time. This was the thrill I was looking for and having both of us reeling in at the same time was a lot of fun. Except for nicks fish took about one minute to pull in and mine was giving the hardest fight I had ever experienced.

I kept reeling and reeling for about 5 minutes before the fish was about 100 feet from the boat and jumped out of the water. It was a sailfish. This was the fish everyone was looking to catch and I of all people was the one hooked on to it. I remember my uncle yelling to reel as hard as possible. I kept reeling as hard as possible because if I lost this fish, my uncle would bring it up to me every time he saw me during and after this trip. 

I fought the sailfish for about 15 minutes and finally got it in the boat. This was the craziest thing I had ever done before. I had felt every emotion from the stabbing pain in my forearms from reeling the sailfish in for so long and the overwhelming feeling of joy I had from finishing the fight and getting the fish in the boat. 

After the trip was over, I did some reflecting on what I had just done. The odds of setting the hook on one of these fishes is very low and landing one in the boat is even lower. 

After this trip, I realized that I did something that made me work harder than I ever had before and I was doing something that I had no real passion behind. 

This exact scenario can happen in everyones life at some point. We all have things we flat out just want to say no to doing. 

If I had stood my ground and been avidly against fishing, I could have missed the opportunity of a lifetime. 

Just like in life, the more we say no to things, the more we limit ourselves on finding out what we are truly capable of. 

I am not saying to go out and book a fishing trip in mexico although it is a lot of fun. What I am saying is to say yes just a little more often and to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Instead of saying what if, say to yourself why not. 

So this week, think about trying something new. Maybe sign up for a different 11 o clock activity than the field of life or CAW. Maybe talk to a new person you havent met before.

It is human instinct to run away from things that make us uncomfortable. But if you never try, you will never know what new opportunities could come from by just saying yes. 

Dillon playing guitar at campfire (second from right)