Describe your year in 4-H. Suggestions to consider: What did you like? What went well? What did you learn? What will you apply to your life? What challenges did you experience? How was your year important to you? What did you like about your 4-H year? 

Among all of my projects this year, my favorite was the swine project. I simply loved having those pigs around! They were inquisitive, funny, and naughty at times! 

I think the hardest part of raising a market animal is letting them go to be processed. When I had to give them up for sale and processing, it made me feel like I was losing a family pet (like a dog). These pigs seemed to have feelings, and I felt really sad after spending so much time with them every day and bonding with them. 

When I knew they weren’t coming back, it was pretty devastating and I have shed a lot of tears in the last few weeks. I loved showing them, getting to know their personalities, trying to train them, and watching them grow. 

My mom asked me, “do you still want to do pigs again next year?”, and I still want to because even though it is hard to let go, I am looking forward to the next batch of little piglets and getting a chance to show them next year. Whenever I get sad about them being gone, I like to think about what my next set of pigs might look like, and also I take pride in how well cared for my pigs were. 

For example, when I learned about the life a commercial hog leads, I was even more determined to make my pigs’ lives even better when it came to a comfortable environment with lots of fresh air, exercise, and love. I mentioned in my project summaries that I realized I am more competitive than I thought I was! 

Not winning any classes in any species throughout my frst year really taught me that winning isn’t everything. However, because now I know this about myself, I am going to harness my competitiveness! 

I am going to take that drive to win and apply it to not only my 4-H projects, but also my schoolwork and my sports. I don’t feel that being a competitive person makes you automatically win everything, and in fact, I really emphasized being a good sport when I didn’t win. I

 always want to be the kind of person who shakes the hand of someone who does win; because in judged events, someday it might be me who is the winner! 

Plus, I don’t want someone who has worked harder than me or had more experience than me to feel like no one likes them, just because they are a winner. 

It can be “lonely at the top” and so to be associated with other competitive kids in 4-H, I feel like I will never be lonely if we can all keep pushing each other and congratulating each other!