I am a lot of things and sometimes what I really want to be gets a little fuzzy. I am a farmer, a cowgirl, a gardener, a designer, an artist, a musician, an athlete, a writer….and we’ll not even get into the sub sections of each category. I love being all those things and I want to be more. I want to be a tracker, a welder, a wild mustang tamer, a trick rider, a soldier…the possibilities are endless.

With all these “titles” and all these dreams, it can get a bit stressful and confusing at times. But in the end, it all comes down to the fact that I am just me. All of those things that I have done, are doing now, and want to do in the future are me. The adventure, the failure, the hard work, and the futures to come are what make us who we are.

Everyone has their own talents, goals and loves but most are too afraid to let them out.  Scared of criticism from others or even worse, the big F word.  FAILURE.  I have met so many people that are passionate about their interests but never see them through because they are too scared of failing.  Failing is not the end of the word.  It’s part of life and it’s also not humanly possible to never fail.  Failure is what makes us stronger, better, more appreciative human beings.

“You’re just good at everything”.  I hear this a lot from people.  They just seem to assume that because I’m accomplished at so many different things that I’ve never had any set backs.  I’ve had tons.  I’ve had artwork that didn’t turn out right so I had to start over.   I’ve been rejected from exhibitions.  I’ve lost bids to good jobs.  I’ve lost more times than I care to think about as an athlete and we won’t even begin to talk about farming.  The point is,  I’ve failed at many things many times.  The important thing is to not give up because of it.  I look at failure as a mistake.  It’s not the end of the world.  It’s something that happens, you learn from it, and then you move on with your new found knowledge.  Yes, it can be disappointing at times and yes, it can be very disheartening.  I’ve found that for me, the best way to get over this is to dig in deep and work as hard as I can and then work even harder.  I put in more hours that I could ever count to the things that I do and when things don’t go as planned, I put in even MORE hours.  We’ll take crocheting for example.  When I first learned how to crochet I did it at every opportunity I could. I was obsessive and this is how I get about EVERYTHING that I do.  When I was busy working I was thinking about crocheting and what kind of patterns I could make up and what kind of wonderful things I could make.  Every spare moment I spent crocheting.  I mastered techniques I liked, watched videos and poured over patterns and magazines.  After I decided that I learned what I wanted I was fine.  I just crochet like a normal person now.  I’m still learning but not at the frenzied pace of a thirsty sponge soaking up water.

Sometimes things are a bit sketchy and sometimes things work out better than one could have ever hoped.   I’ve learned over the years to cherish every moment….even the really bad ones as I’m a pure believe in the statement “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.   Each moment is defined by how we look at it or how we react to it.  Never let life get you down.  It’s your life, and the only one that makes it yours is you.