The End of the Road?

Wow! It’s is crazy to think, as I am typing this on July 28, 2016, that tomorrow I will be at the Horse Park for Round up and then Monday is my very last day with Christian County Extension! My supervisor, Kendriana, told me during Intern Orientation that the 12 weeks would fly by. I thought “No way! 12 weeks is an extremely long time”! Well, now that my time is really coming to an end I see what she meant.

This summer is been strange and new. Not strange, in the sense that I have been engaging in weird and unusual activities…strange as in different. This summer has been so different because I cannot remember the last summer that I had so much things going on and could honestly say I wasn’t bored. I have been entertained by Extension all summer long!

I came into this summer with the goal of changing my views on my hometown and county of Hopkinsville, Christian County as a whole. I have grown up here and I lived here until fall of 2013, when I moved to Georgetown. Throughout my whole life, all I have seen and witnessed in this area is the negatives here. I was always given the mindset that if you wanted to be somebody and make something of your life you had to leave Christian County and never look back (unless if you really had some good connections in town). Also, I had seen how hard it could be for individuals to leave this area. It has always seemed if you were given one opportunity to leave you had to take it, because it wasn’t likely to happen again.

This summer I have been introduced to so many individuals that have helped to transform some of that thinking. I have worked along side adults who have made and continue to make their mark on Christian County.  I could see the passion in their eyes and see that these individuals care about our community and the people in it. Not only have I worked with adults making a different, I have had the opportunity to work with kids in the community as well. I have seen kids talk about their future career goals, where they would like to go to college, and work on their leadership skills. I even had the opportunity to do my summer project, my college prep board game “The Game of College Life” with one of the groups at the local Boy’s and Girl’s club! It has been humbling to witnesses these things.

My second goal for the summer was to figure out if Extension could be a career option for me. If you would have asked me earlier in the summer if I wanted to be an agent, my response would have been “Absolutely not”! I came into this summer not knowing much about what Extension is. I knew the idea behind it, but had never seen any of it. Everything about Extension was so new to me at the beginning and it took a while for me to adjust. After doing some reflections, I realized that I actually love what Extension does. I believe where my original thoughts on not wanting to seek a career in Extension came from me not understanding its mission. The more and more I thought about it, I believe that maybe, just maybe 4-H isn’t the department for me.

Upon coming into this internship, I had super high hopes of doing lots of work with our three 4-H agents and our FCS agent here in Christian County. In my head, that would be the perfect summer! I have six years and counting worth of experience working with youth and Family Science is my major. I did not realize that Tiffany, FCS agent here, was going on maternity leave within days of my arrival. With that, I have only participated in 4-H programming and events all summer. Even though my last day is Monday, August 1, 2016, I have been given the opportunity to travel to Caldwell County to see Ashley White’s, FCS agent, Area Homemaker Council book study on August 4, 2016. I am hoping that this event will be the missing piece of the puzzle for my summer. I have always said when I graduate college I want to work in my field. Well, FCS is exactly that. I have high hopes that I will enjoy finally getting to see some FCS programming. I am also hoping after that I will decide that I definitely want to pursue Extension. While I didn’t “catch the bug” as they say with 4-H…I do love what 4-H does. I plan to visit the Scott County Extension office in Georgetown and get some paperwork and sign my little sister up, so she can be involved with Cloverbuds.

This may be the end of my summer internship with Extension, but I don’t think this will be the last Extension will see of me!