It's not goodbye, but a see you later!

Sunset at Camp

"This is goodnight and not goodbye." These words have been in my head since my first years in 4-H when I first attended camp when I was nine-years-old. They ring truer and truer as I become older and have different life experiences. I believe that there is reason for everything that happens to us in our lives. Having this internship experience is just one thing that is apart of making me, me. There was always apart of me that thought, "I want to be an agent." I thought that this was just one of those thoughts that you have growing up, like the, "I want to be a doctor," phase that most of us went through as children. It was not until recently that I really started entertaining the idea that I can and could become an agent. That is when I decided to embark on the Extension Internship Program with UK. This summer has been nothing short of amazing, inspiring, educational, and lots of discovering. In just 12 short weeks I have found a more truer form of myself with Extension. This is a place where I can be me and make a difference.

Birds of Prey 

There is one thing that I have always said when people ask me what I want to do when I graduate, that is, "I just want to make a difference in the lives of people in my community." With Extension, that is exactly what you get to do and you have fun while doing just that. Being able to give people the tools and knowledge to rise above a situation and help them out is just an amazing feeling. I am so incredibly fortunate that I was able to experience this internship.

Sherri Broderick, Me, and Owen Prim at camp

I would also like to say thank you to Sherri Farley for letting me intern with her this summer and taking me on as an intern! It has been a lot of fun! Also to Sherri Broderick, thank you for letting me help and direct some of your Summer workshops as well. I have had a great time! I have had such a great experience with the entire office this summer! Be looking for me, I won't be a stranger!

My JCs and me at 4-H camp!

My twelfth year of camp was a success! Despite torrential down pours on the way to North Central, camp was great. The weather after was amazing and for the first time, I had to wear a sweatshirt at camp! The evenings were pleasant as well! Every time I go to camp, there is a little camp magic that captivates me every year, a little part of me that is nine again and getting off of the bus and seeing camp for the first time, and apart of me that resolves in my heart the many memories that I made at camp. There is not a day at camp that goes by where the group that I once was a camper with, who are now counselors say, "Remember when we..." I live for those camp stories!

Coming to camp as an adult allows me to give those same memories and foster that camp magic in the campers that I have contact with. I love seeing their eyes light up when they see the clover light up for the first time, or when they hear the pitchfork tree story, or experience something new. Having this influence on the campers is such a wonderful thing, I look up to them as much as they look to me for guidance. I hope that I am always going to camp and that I am just as important to my campers as they are to me.

After we returned from camp, Sherri Broderick was finishing her time up at our office before she transferred to Gallatin County. We conducted a teen club meeting and baked homemade dog biscuits with the teens. The following day we delivered them to our animal shelter in Campbell County. The teen club chooses or we find a civic engagement project for them to engage in for a community service project.

The internship round up was a lot of fun! Thank you for taking us to places that I would have never thought of to explore! They bother were beautiful.

Three Chimney's

My internship has been so much fun! I don't know what I am going to do with myself now that I am finished after today. I am so thankful that UK Extension allows us to participate in this program. So Martha and everyone else, thank you for coordinating the program!

Hope to see you all around soon!

Ashley Hyden