Growing up I always said I wanted to move to London. I have no idea where I got that idea from or why London, but I was pretty determined to make this happen. As I got older I realized I liked Michigan enough to stay for a while. But London always stayed a place I longed to visit. Growing up in a small, rural area you wonder if you will ever make these dreams happen.
This is where 4-H entered the picture. My mom studiously signed us up for 4-H at the age of 5. When she signed me up, I don’t think she had any idea how much 4-H would give me or how far it would take me. I had crafted, photographed and sewed my way to a solid 4-H career by the age of 10. When I was old enough I started showing an animal each summer at the county fair. I loved it. But my world really changed when a friend told me I should come with her to Michigan 4-H Dairy Days.
My eyes were opened to all of the opportunities in agriculture for their youth. The only thing limiting you is your own imagination and drive. Even though I saw the potential I never thought it would be me living my dreams. Lucky for me I caught the eye of the state 4-H dairy judging coach. To this day I still don’t know what he saw in me. I was a loud mouth, ditzy acting, no self comfidence teenager. Apparently he saw potential. I am so thankful he did.
Being on on a national dairy judging team means a lot of work. All year long you are practicing judging cows and giving reasons. When you do a class of cows, you judge four cows and then give a small speech about why you placed each cow where she is. This probably sounds like the nerdiest thing ever, if you aren’t from agriculture.
As nerdy as it may sound, participating in dairy judging in 4-H opened my world up so much. 4-H has given me some of my closest friendships. When you spend months and months together with people for years, you tend to develop some close relationships. Our mutual interest of cows and spending a lot of time together made some strong bonds. I regularly talk to several of these people and consider them to be a strong part of my professional network and a part of my good friends.
Like so many teenagers and young women I had a big, fat lack of self confidence. 4-H gave me a group of people that we all had mutual interests. For the first time in my life I started to feel comfortable in my skin because I didn’t feel like the weird kid. Going through all of those contests and actually doing well gave me a boost of confidence. After a while those boosts of confidence stayed with me and continued to grow.
Being involved in the Michigan 4-H Dairy program opened my eyes to a career I love. Before this I was looking for anything else to do. The program opened my eyes to the fact that I could be successful in a career that works with animals every single day and I didn’t need a veterinary medicine doctorate. I realized how diverse agriculture is and how many unique careers there really are out there.
To to get back to what I talked about in the beginning, travel. One of my dairy judging teams placed in the top at the main national contest, World Dairy Expo. When you do this, you win the option of going on a trip to Europe. Before this, I loved traveling the United States. This trip I went on with a group of youth from Michigan and across the country, turned on another switch in me. I gained the chronic itch of Wanderlust. I think about the next trip I’m going to take. Which doesn’t happen because milk price isn’t great and being a dairy farmer means not a ton of vacation time. So maybe some day….
My point of writing this is not to say the 4-H dairy program is the only program that can give a youth the world. There are so many things in 4-H that can open a child’s eyes to what they can do. 4-H has hundreds of different programs to spark every kids interest. I truly believe 4-H is one of the greatest youth organizations in the world, along with The National FFA Organization.
For more information about 4-H click here.
