RE: first deer/last year
Nice write-up... congratulations!
The thing that impressed me is that you took the initiative to get in the woods, set up, make the shot, gut your animal, etc., all without a whole lot of teaching from anyone else.
I think a lot of people would like to start hunting, but don't have friends or family that hunt and could teach them the ropes. There are probably a lot who never get into the sport because of that. You obviously took it upon yourself to learn what you could from reading, research online, etc. and then went on to do it... without the fear of failure stopping you.
My request to you would be to bring someone else into the sport. Perhaps children when you have them, or a friend who might be interested but not know how to go about it...