Early this morning I find myself reflecting on the past 25 years and looking forward to the next 25 years. I am a goal oriented person and I can think to myself of all the goals I had before reaching 25. Mainly they were to graduate high school, graduate college, get married, start a family, have a nationally recognized showstock breeding program....the list could probably go on and on. I have done most and some are still being worked on. Along the way I had alot of detours and up rootings including a divorce which changed life and goals in a way nobody could have ever prepared me for. As goal oriented as I am, I never made goals for detours or past the tender age of 25. I figured if I worked extremely hard I'd have it all accomplished, boy was I mistaken! So now I sit here trying to think of what I want to accomplish in the next 25 years and the list seems so endless. I'd like to one day expand my family should the right time have it, raise my son to be a hardworking, honest, young man and I would like to be able to put food on the table, have heat and a roof with the occasional money to go out to eat for a treat or to a movie. I dont really ask for alot; I just work hard and hope for the best. I hope for a new job where I would be allowed to feel more full filled after a hard days work. Beyond that, my dreams and hopes mainly revolve around showstock. I dream of purple ribbons and respect in the showstock community. I was raised showing livestock and developed a deep everlasting love and passion for the showring. Not only do I love the showring, but I love the blood, sweat, and tears that are left in the barn after a cold winters night lambing, or a scorching hot summers day trimming. I could only hope my son shares a portion of my passion to give me a reason to work yet another job and even harder at developing a world class breeding operation for all your showstock needs. I hope in the next 10 years, I see myself in the list of champions at the NAILE and I hope to see my son pictured in the sale of champions at the state fair. There are many folks alot smarter at breeding, fitting, and advertising then I, but there are few that share the true deep passion of love for doing what we do. Not to many people can go broke and be happy doing so over livestock...not too many people can spend a Saturday night in the barn trimming and be happy doing it, and not too many people can have frostbitten fingers after working in the barn after a bitter cold winters night and be happy doing it, but me, thats where I feel centered and at home. If one would pause for 10 minutes of silence just observing a puppy, a lamb, a calf, you'd learn alot about yourself and find yourself enjoying the simpler things in life and inevitably smile.
With all that being said, there is much more I'd like to accomplish in the next 25 years, more then just purple ribbons. If I could go back in time I'd rewrite my goals, accomplish a little less in the first 25 years and savor and enjoy what I did accomplish rather then treating it like a to do list and just check it off and move on to the next. After recently reading a friends post it makes me hesitant on how to think of my goals. I don't want to wish my life away, and I dont want to wish my sons life away. Yes, I'm so excited to see him play in his football game and I am so excited to see he and I show together, but those things can wait. I want to focus on the right now moments and make a plan for the future. I had a great friend who lived by the quote "Plan your work and work your plan." Well, my goals are gonna take alotta work, so I need to get to planning. These next 25 years are gonna be special....I can feel it. I have so much to look forward to so many new goals to attain, I am ready to get to work! See you in the ring, might be the ring of life or the showring, but you'll find me there!
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