Throughout
the years, I have been asked to defend Georgia 4-H in many different
situations. From college friends who
thought of it as a hick organization to state legislators who have asked me if
the program is still relevant in a time of budget cuts, I have had many chances
to give a list of bullet points describing the value of the program. I have always struggled in these
conversations and situations because 4-H has had such a tremendous impact on my
life that it is hard to summarize in 30 seconds. Often, after listing a few attributes such as
4-H’s ability to develop leaders and its ability to educate youth in
non-traditional settings, I conclude by saying something that sounds cliché
like: 4-H has made the person I am today. Most people don’t give me an opportunity to
explain what I mean by that, but I’d like to take the next few minutes to share
my story with you.
I grew
up in Claxton, Georgia on a farm. My
grandparents lived right down the road from me, and I spent countless hours at
their house snooping through their closets and drawers to find out more about my dad
and how he grew up. One day, when I was
tall enough to see it, I found a closet shelf full of trophies. Nana explained that the trophies were my
dad’s old 4-H awards from steer shows and project achievement. She told me all about the projects he
participated in while he was in 4-H. It
sounded like so much fun! I couldn’t
wait until I was old enough to participate.
In
fifth grade, 4-H became even more attractive.
My dad came up with the great idea that summer to put my older sister,
younger brother, and me out in peanut fields every morning to weed these
terrible things called citrens out of the peanuts by hand. Every day for about 4 hours, we literally
crawled through peanut fields doing this.
He paid us $2.00 an hour, but he wouldn’t let us spend the money because
he said we needed to save up. I truly hated
this job!
During
the third week in June 1992, I got a break from peanut weeding to go to 4-H
camp. It was nothing short of
magical! For a whole week, I got to go
swimming, canoeing, learn archery, and meet friends from all over the state. It was one of the most wonderful experiences
in my life. After camp, I wrote a letter
to my cabin’s counselor, Mac Gunnels, thanking him and all of the other
counselors for such a wonderful week.
Would you believe it? He wrote
back! He told me that he read my letter
to all of the counselors at camp and that it made them cry. That was amazing to me and was probably the
very first time that I learned that something I said or wrote could have a truly
positive impact on others. He asked me
to keep in touch and let him know about my future 4-H experiences. I did.
Through most of middle school and a little of high school, I stayed in
touch. In 6th grade, I told
him about my decision to accept Christ, and he celebrated with me with the
nicest letter. During times in high
school when so many of my friends made fun of that decision and what it
represented, I thought of his support and how nice it was to know that someone
I looked up to supported my decision.
As you
can imagine, I continued to do everything I could in 4-H because (1) it got me
off the farm; and (2) it continued to expose me to the most wonderful people
and experiences. Our county agents,
Mike Dollar and Tonya Beasley, seemed to ALWAYS have time for me – no matter
how busy they were. They would let me
sit in their office and talk with them, often well past 5 o’clock, about
whatever was on my mind. Now – years
later – I don’t remember much about the conversations, but I do remember the
amazing investment in time that they gave me.
In fact, when I was making my most recent career transition, it was my county agents that I thought most often about.
I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I knew who I
wanted to be like. Because of their
patience and positive support, they were names that came up most often to the top
of my list.
4-H
gave me wonderful opportunities to explore things that I thought I was
interested in. In middle school, I just
knew I wanted to be a veterinarian. I
asked my dad to help me with my projects on dog care and swine, and he did more
than that. One Saturday morning, he came
to the house and told me to hop in the truck.
He drove over to a lot on the farm where people were staring at a poor
cow that was obviously in distress. My
dad explained that she was trying to deliver twins that were co-joined
at the head, and he told me to pay attention to the vet that was helping
her. Two minutes later, I was back in
the truck, white as a sheet. Without any
college loans to pay back, I knew that I needed to change my future career
path. I attribute that experience fully
to my involvement in 4-H and the conversations that my dad and I had as a
result of that involvement.
After
the cow incident, I switched my project to public speaking. I spent the next several years giving
speeches – first in my community, and then all over the state. You have no idea how valuable those
experiences were - and continue to be - to me.
During my third year in law school, I did an externship with a local
attorney named John Williams. As part of
the externship, I tagged along with him to courthouses all over eastern
Virginia. One day, he asked me if I
wanted to defend a client in a criminal trial.
Thinking I would have plenty of time to prepare with him, I said,
“Sure!”
He smiled at me and asked, “Can you be ready to go in thirty minutes?”
Let me tell you, I was scared out
of my mind. A real trial, impacting real
people, in a real courtroom looks very different when you are a third year,
inexperienced law student than it does when you are watching it on tv. I walked to the client room where I was to
meet the defendant for the first time, and I thought about running back to John
and telling him that I just couldn’t do it.
But – at that very moment – I thought about all the times I had done
public speeches in 4-H when I was scared, and I realized that if I could do
that then that I could handle this case now.
I walked through the door, met my client, and conducted my very first
trial that afternoon.
If you participate in enough 4-H
activities, you eventually end up with friends all over the state. I am proud to say that Keri Gandy Hobbs, who
I met when we were hanging up our officer candidate signs at the Canteen at
Rock Eagle in 7th grade, Leigh Varnadoe, who I went on a leadership
tour of Georgia with as a tenth grader, Kelle Spencer Ashley, who I was a
counselor with at Rock Eagle, and Marcy McElveen Pugliese, who was my best
Evans County 4-H friend, just threw me a baby shower last year. Emily Howard Watson, who I planned meetings
with as a fellow Jr. Board officer in middle school, now participates with me
in meetings as a co-worker at the Archway Partnership at the University of
Georgia. And – to name drop a little –
Jennifer Nettles, who is the principal singer in Sugerland, was my cabin’s
“Milk Mama” at Rock Eagle in 7th grade.* With the exception of Marcy - all of these
people lived hours away from me, but we were able to grow up together because
of our experiences in Georgia 4-H.
I could go on for hours about my
experiences in 4-H and still not be able to fully recount the profound impact
it has had on my life. As I mentioned at
the outset, it has made me the person I am today in so many different
ways. And – lucky for me - my story isn’t over
yet. As my life progresses, I look forward to adding onto my story and onto this speech. But - tonight, I look forward to learning
a little about your stories and seeing how 4-H is making a difference in your
life too. Congratulations on your awards and good luck as you daily try to make the best even better.
* To be completely honest, Jennifer Nettles would have no idea who I am today. However, we did speak one time when she told me I couldn't change out of wet socks at camp because I needed to get to a dance at the rec hall. Fortunately, Mr. Dollar intervened and let me change my socks anyway. At any rate, it is cool that I had one brush with someone soon-to-be famous.
