Summer is here which
means family vacations for some of us and 4H projects for others. If you were blessed to take a summer vacation
and have 4-H projects, consider yourself lucky.
Free time on the farm doesn’t come around for some of our farmers or
their families which means no vacation time.
However, staying home and learning about the various lessons from your
4-H projects can be an adventure as well.
As a kid, we camped a
lot with our friends around the state but didn’t take too many long summer
vacations. My mom would take us on our
fancy trip to Chicago, “the big city”, to shop while the farmer stayed home for
the harvest. I am sure he was just fine
staying home and away from the city and our shopping shenanigans, so it all
worked out.
The one time he went
with us on a Spring Break trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama, I never really wanted
to vacation with him again. I was in the
5th grade and we were going with a big group of people to experience
new adventures and to relax on the beach.
However, if you know farmers, they can’t really sit still.
I was elated to stay
in a condo with a view of the beach and surrounded by the noise of the big,
blue waves. However, the farmer had
something else in mind for us on vacation.
We had to see the army bases and battleships. It was not an experience this Midwestern farm
girl that lived between the cows was expecting to have on her “vacation” to the
beach.
We even had to cut
our trip short and head back to Indiana because my farmer dad noticed the corn
sprouting from the fields in Alabama. He
got antsy, couldn’t sit still and had to get home to start planting. I think I even started my 4-H projects
earlier that year too.
As time has gone on
and I have traveled around the world, I think about that summer vacation and
the time we spent learning about the history of our country and those that
served on the battlefield. I now
understand that dad took us on adventures through the battleships to teach us
something and why we were able to enjoy our vacations. He taught us that it’s okay to sit on the
beach and relax for a short time, but vacations should include life lessons
just like those 4-H projects left behind to finish. Even though I was mad we came home early, I
think I earned more blue ribbons that year—lesson learned.
So take that summer
vacation to sit still and relax for a moment!
But remember to learn a lesson or two while you are away from the farm
or your home. Enjoy that freedom to
travel and be adventurous and give thanks for the lessons they teach you, maybe
you’ll get a blue ribbon too.
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