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I love agriculture and have been so blessed to have been surrounded in it since before I was born. I love everything that agriculture stands for and even more than that I love standing up for agriculture at any time of the day or night.
I love Colorado State and am so lucky to be going to college here for animal sciences. I came into college at Mesa State University, now Colorado Mesa University, and swam there for my freshman year. It was the first year that agriculture wasn't as involved in my life as it had always been. I had swam for a good 8 years and so swimming itself wasn't what was "off". I realized that I needed to get back to some familiarity and decided to go to CSU for Equine Sciences. Once I was there, I realized that as much as I love horses and the horse community, I was much more of a "cow" person so I added animal sciences and dropped equine.
I never really had sat down and thought about EXACTLY what I wanted to do with my animal sciences degree. My dad is a beef cattle nutritionist and I grew up watching him complete his undergrads, masters, and doctorate so I considered that to be an option. The behavior of holstein bulls has always been something that sparked my interest, but I wasn't sure that the animal behavior field alone was one I could see myself in. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE learning about animal behavior- watching my mom get her degrees in psychology and sociology really influenced that. However, since I thought that dairy bulls were interesting and I loved nutrition I wondered if dairy was a good fit. The more I looked into dairy, the more negative press I saw regarding it.
If I were to take any personality test on earth they would all give you almost the exact same conclusion about me- I like facts, and data, and science, and figures. Which to me is very interesting for two huge reasons:
A) Yes, I do like those things. I like straight to the point, no beating around the bush, yes or no answers and information.
B) However, I am a whole mess of emotions. My emotions and my need for science are my two strongest pieces. With that being said there are many many issues and situations where they have an internal battle that makes things really complicated for me.
For example, here is an internal battle-
Emotions-
I love baby animals so much, it probably makes some people sick. I see a baby dairy calf and I just want to load it in the truck and take it home with me.
vs.
Logic-
Those baby cows can end up wielding a profit in a multitude of areas. Yes they are as cute as ever but there will always be more and as long as they are humanely handled, they are happy.
Each of those sides are always taken to extremes, but in the end, I allow the logical side to win the dominance battle.
How cute is that face though?
So as I watched videos that were produced and edited to solicit an emotional response from the general public who may not be as educated with the actuality of agriculture, I was struck with this assessment about myself.
"I am passionate about getting the truth out there. The truth about all aspects of agriculture."
And I cannot say that I have ever been this passionate about anything else in my life. That was when I realized that I needed to go into agricultural communications. I feel like there are stories out there that need to be told. And for some reason I feel like those stories are stories that I can communicate to the public very well.
There was where two incredibly stressful weeks started for me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life and I knew exactly why. But, CSU does not have an agricultural communications major. My options were to go to Oklahoma State University for extremely cheap, go to University of Idaho and be closer to home, or jerry-rig my own program at CSU and stay in the program that I have already fallen in love with.
I chose CSU. I am now majoring in animal sciences with a minor in media studies. So as this venture takes off, you are stuck with reading my blog and all that comes with it:)
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