Our county fair is right around the corner. I want to share a little about what the fair means to me and to others like me. Some may think the fair is just a bunch of rides, food, and activities. To me, the fair is so much more. I spent 20 years of my life attending every day every year, getting there before the sun came up, and leaving after the sun had gone down. You see, I was an exhibitor, a member of 4-H, a farm kid. I started showing when I was barely walking, in open class. I remember the long days as a child, even now in my adult life.

I hadn’t realized then what it taught me, but I do now. It started with chickens and then progressed to larger animals. By the time, I was a 4-H member and no longer a Cloverbud (the youngest age group) I was showing hogs and cattle. Particularly dairy cattle as I lived on a Jersey dairy farm.

4-H taught me a few things—it has taught me unbelievable hard work, compassion, responsibility, humbleness, humility, and grace. You see, you don’t attend the fair as an exhibitor for the sole purpose of winning, because let’s face it, there is only one winner and there are hundreds of exhibitors. For me, it wasn’t the winning, it was everything else that I loved. Knowing that after a long and grueling year of getting up before school and coming straight home after school and working on my project to end it with something to be proud of.

There is something else I gained from that long week, life-long friendships. There are people to this day that I know, care for, and have a relationship with and when people ask how we met; “oh, we showed together”. A language only a fairgoer would understand.

Us farm kids, get a lot of bad rep, because people believe what we do is wrong but the next time you’re at the fair on sale day; take a look around. There are tears falling, not just because were mourning the loss of a beloved animal that we cared for, for months and created a special bond but because of the overwhelming feeling that is all over now.

Our fair marks the end of summer, and a new school year is about to begin. I am writing this to ask you, this year when you attend our fair— if you don’t already— take a moment to walk through the barns and admire the hard work these kids have put into a project that they are unbelievably proud of, they deserve the recognition.l