An ode to my younger self

Written by

Anastasia Patterson

Each year for the past, let’s say three years, I’ve had the pleasure of wrapping my NITRO bass boat for that year. Every year was an “ode to something” that was very… me.

The first year was an ode to my younger self around the ages of 6 to 8 when I became obsessed with bass fishing in particular. It was blue and white, which also were my college colors (“Sco Hose”), with a fade that kind of looked like water and cheetah print. If you know me, you’d probably know one of my lifelong obsessions is the Disney Channel movies The Cheetah Girls.

The Cheetah Girls was one of those movies that changed the trajectory of my life. It showed me that dreamers can dream and that goals can be crushed. It very much is a “Head Up, Hammer Down” vibe.

But anyway, this boat wrap was based off a drawing I turned into my teacher in elementary school.

Prompt: “If you were on a deserted island, what items would you have with you?”
Me: “A sparkly purse, my phone (which I’m sure was the hot pink Motorola Razr at the time), and of course a boat because I’m going fishing.”

I brought this boat to life with the help of the great folks at Bass Pro Shops and One Eleven. I mixed in the cheetah print and the sneaky blue and white, which yes reminded me of colleges, but truthfully are two of my favorite colors and are also an ode to the movie Anastasia. (If I ever make the Bassmaster Classic, the iconic blue dress is also a must.)

I romanticized this boat for ages and it came out exactly how I dreamed. My heart burst with the Lord revealing His promises to me, and I was beyond honored for all the memories I made in this rig.

If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m a chronic overthinker, but I love details.

I’ve always loved the quote, “Little is much when God is in it,” because if my story could help lead Heaven to be crowded, then I truly have been a fisherman.

The next boat

Me: “I want something more sophisticated and harder to see on the water, but something that still pops.”

I wrestled with the idea, and one of my dear friends, who is now just 11 and also a diva that loves fishing, consulted me.

“Miss Anastasia, you NEED something that pops.”

Once again, we thought we hit the nail on the head.

I’ve never been too concerned with the bass seeing you coming, but I had worried about being on a really good hole and attracting “hole buzzards.”

At the time, I was reading the children’s book Layla’s Big Bass to a kindergarten class at my alma mater when a piece of duct tape on a cubby caught my eye. I asked the librarian for a piece of it, and she said I could have the rest of the roll. Something about it stuck out to me.

I then found a surgical glove that had the sort of gloss I wanted. I sent a picture of the two side by side to the gentleman that would be doing my wrap, and he truly brought the vision to life.

As silly as that sounds, there was a lot of thought behind this rig.

And yet again, it came full circle.

I hadn’t really been back to my alma mater since the day I graduated because of the business of life. I had been praying for weeks for time to slow down, and it just so happened I was available.

I went back to the same school, the same library where I once sat and watched movies, read as many books as I could, and learned more about fishing than possibly anything else I still remember. I even took Accelerated Reading tests on the “ancient desktops.”

I still have the roll of tape and the glove in my desk drawer.

Along with this concept, I wanted to “black out the boat in a way.” I thought it would have more appeal.

As the year went on fishing the Bassmaster Opens, it ended up getting the name the “Hot Bass Mess.” No matter what I did, I felt like I would always fall short of the goal or be extremely dysfunctional that year. And because I truly spent so much time in and out of it, from time to time… it was a mess.

Purple was an ode to another “Cheetah Sister,” and of course the pink because, well, I love pink. Gucci and Chanel had a ton of purple on the runway last year, so I had it on the waterway.

Sounds about right.

I got what seemed like hundreds of thumbs up going down the road in the boat and had a lot of God winks along the way.

This rig was so fun, but I really wanted to elevate it, since I’m getting older and more established, and really just so much in my life is changing.

2026

The wrap I lost sleep over for nights because I couldn’t think of anything that was good enough.

I remembered a time last year where I had a little girl and her mother come up to me at a gas station and say they loved my boat. Then another time, a little boy asked if he could actually get in because he’d never been in a boat before.

Sitting in a boat in a parking lot doesn’t sound fun to most, but to him it was so cool.

That’s when I remembered I dreamed of days where I would have even half of what I have now.

I sat in my daddy’s boat in the yard, even in the rain sometimes when he was at work, playing with my Bratz dolls and pretending to win the Bassmaster Classic. I even cast off of it. Dreaming of what could be one day.

The little boy told me he had “never seen a woman with a boat before,” that I must “really love to fish.”

And I do.

I love nothing more, just about.

When I remembered this conversation, I knew less subtle wasn’t going to be it for me.

I had to get my boat a little later this year due to the crazy weather and scheduling, but it helped me work with another great local company, WRAPABULL.

I was nervous they’d think I was asking for too much. The first design I kindly disregarded. There’s another great story about the wrap I chose, but the one I did choose came out even better than what I had dreamed.

I had that childlike feeling like a kid on the boat, even sitting in a gas station parking lot.

The kind of thing that makes you feel like small towns and big cities are places for dreamers and doers, and from riverbanks to miles offshore, even if only the Lord sees the good that He has done, it’s okay to do something way outside the norm.

This year is the year most of my childhood best friends will be turning 30.

In true 13 Going on 30 fashion, I wanted to tie in the idea of “30, flirty and thriving.”

So of course I had to think of things that were me.

I wanted this boat to be something girls who are 13 or those going on 30 could see and believe in their dreams too.

I started thinking about more pink, a color I’m obsessed with. If you don’t see me in camo, you’ll probably see me in something pink.

I was talking in the weigh-in line with a guy who fishes the Opens, and he said I reminded him of the Pink Power Ranger.

“Determined. The ‘only’ girl but won’t let others treat her differently because of it.”

So I sat down that night and watched an old episode, and of course her energem is pink.

Pink had to be part of the wrap.

As far as 13 Going on 30, I wanted something sleek, mature, but still playful. Something that when you drive down the road makes you do a double take, and hopefully something that’s so me that I can get out of my head and go fishing.

“I am more sure about this than I’ve ever been about anything. This is our Cheetah destiny.”
— The Cheetah Girls

I also wanted it to be something where from the gas pump, to the boat ramp, to the lake, and anywhere in between, you can smile and say, “That is someone living out their dreams.”

I’m not sure what’s to come, but I’ll let you in on a secret.

I’m maximizing my true God-given abilities and being my true self.

I’m being faithful to what the Lord has called me to do.

The win that so many people want to see a woman achieve may never be me, and that is a-okay.

I am tickled to death at the impact that chasing a dream has on one’s soul, but even more so how humbling it can be.