You Never Know a Good Thing...

It is over, and it was rather successful, I must say. It was also my last ever as a 4-H member. The 2011 edition of the Calgary 4-H Regional show and sale, 4-H on Parade. This year's event had a more nostalgic feel to it for me than previous events have. My ninth in a row, 4-H on Parade has always been the culmination of eight months' hard work, long hours, and new challenges.
Thankfully, this year went off without a hitch. My steer and cow/calf projects were well behaved and performed well in their respective classes. I claimed a Reserve Champion All Other Breeds Female title for the second time, and I placed second in my class with my market steer at one of the most competitive junior market steer shows in the country. To have such successes on both show days of the three day event is very rewarding. The weekend culminated in the form of the beef steer sale, where my monster 1453 pound steer brought $1.75/pound, rounding to approximately $2500 dollars. My hogs did equally as well. Each side of pork was auctioned off individually, and six sides totalled about $1085.
Sunday afternoon brought with it some bittersweet memories of years gone by. The alley where my very first steer was taken to the slaughterhouse remains much unchanged. Though the steer sale has never been as traumatizing for me as that first one eight years ago, seeing the little first year juniors so upset for their newly sold pets can bring a lump to your chest. As this was my last year at 4-H on Parade, it also becomes my last year with my 4-H club, Balzac Beef. I will likely see only a few of these members again in the years to come, though we do all get together at the end of June for our banquet and awards. Some of the people not planning on attending the banquet expressed their gratitude and well wishes as the weekend wound down. Though they said it was a "pleasure to have you here for the last two years," it was even more a pleasure for me to be a part of such a good group of people, who all have a common vested interest in the future of agriculture. I can only hope that I left as positive a mark on the Balzac club and on the Calgary region as those who have gone before me.
They say you never know what you have until it's gone. Being a 4-H member is gone now, done almost completely. That being said, I will continue to support and participate in 4-H for the rest of my life. The things 4-H has taught me are invaluable, and I am so much further ahead because of them. They said I was moving on to bigger and better things, but, while Texas A&M may be bigger, it will need to be one hell of a university and, after that, one hell of a life to be better than the last nine years of 4-H.