Sometimes I forget that I grew up in a very different way than most people.  My Dad is a farmer, and I grew up showing cattle all summer long…every summer.  To me, this is totally normal since I’m from a small town in southern Indiana, but when other people introduce me as “The Farm Girl”, I remember that not everyone knows what the difference between a bull and a steer is, and that the weather on the 11 p.m. news isn’t the most important thing on television for everyone.

I love being a farm girl….I truly do.  For me, it is the only thing that saved me from being the girliest girl on this side of the Mississippi, since the rest of my childhood revolved around dance and cheerleading.  I wasn’t super hardcore about showing cattle or anything, but it’s only normal to get stronger and tougher when you are pulling a 1300 lb. steer around a show ring.  And I’m sure that someday I will be able to take my talent of cleaning out stalls (aka scooping manure) straight to the bank… even though I have no idea how that will happen.

This is my absolute favorite time of the year…because spring is when everything on the farm basically comes back to life.  Cows have baby calves, my Dad plants all of his crops, and since it stays light outside past 6 p.m. there is so much more time that you can spend outside.  And as spring turns to summer, everything just gets better and better.  County fair time starts again and the crops grow, which makes drives on highways and country roads absolutely perfect.  All of these things make it that much harder for me to be away from home, because there is nothing better than life in the country in the spring and summer.  I survived last year….but I’m really not sure how I will take it for the second year in a row.  I know it is all a part of growing up and moving on….but why would you want to move on when this is in your back yard???