Final: 1st draft

(First Draft)
The Success Complex

Growing up in a small farming town life was pleasant, sheltered from most of the city culture.  Most of my family lived in the same town, owning five farm locations and most of the land surrounding the area, there was not many places I couldn’t go.  I felt free, able to breath in the fresh air and enjoy what God had provided for me and my family.  I was the only girl in my immediate Family; with one other cousin we did not have much choice but to play with the boys, and were expected to be just as rough and tough as they were.  Occasionally I could talk them into playing dress up with me and watching Disney movies, but it was very rare.  One thing that did catch my eye as “a typical girl” was Disney princesses.  And still to this day reference the courage of Cinderella and the kindness of snow white in my daily life.

 In the summer when we were old enough, we were out pitching hay in the fields with the boys, calling in cattle and driving tractors to and from the different barns transporting hay.  The winters were calving and lambing season, the best and most difficult time of the year when there was not much to do on the farm other than machinery repairs and tending to the animals. My cousin and I were the ones on call twenty four hours a day (school being an exception) for lambing and calving on the farm because we were the only ones that were small enough to be able to help the ewe or cow if there was trouble.

Fixing the equipment was more the boy’s interest, tearing things apart and putting them back together. Although there were times I helped I did not have much interest, but learned a lot like how to change oil, grease bearings, fix PTO shafts and how a transmission worked.  My father and I worked on smaller projects together like building benches out of old tailgates from the junk yard or small repairs around the barn.

 Growing up on my family’s farm and experiencing college away from home the first three years, I believe has shaped me into the successful women I am today.

The Beginning

After high-school we were all expected to further our education to college.  But first to graduate from my high-school we had to complete a very extensive project.  It required us to have at least 100 hours contributed to the project of our choosing but had to be significant to ourselves or surrounding community.  Showing a significant skill we had acquired either in the classroom or in the outside world.  Most of the boys did something with woodworking, rebuilding a classic car or tractor, and the girls, learning a new language or putting on fundraisers for specific organization.  And then there was me, standing among all the guys with my bio-diesel processor I had made from a hot water tank, water pump and a makeshift filtration system.  Most of my friends at the time were boys anyways so I didn't think too much about it as being out of the norm, at least from my point of view.        

Senior Project night was at the end of the school year where we were to present our projects to the judging committee, that night they walked around to all the projects with the rest of the community that came to see the hard work my fellow students had done over the year.  There were three grading levels: distinguished, Passing, Not passing and a separate achievement award called best of show that was granted to the one with the best presentation, and distinguished project.  I was the only girl out of my class of 42 to receive the only Best of Show Distinguished award.  Feeling that sense of satisfaction and power I had at that moment to be recognized and awarded for all the hard work I had put in that year triggered something in me, and at that moment I knew I would never be the same.  That was when I realized how competitive living on a farm had made me and, how the drive for success was one of my biggest personal attributes.   

The Complex
The fall after high-school graduation, I left for The Ohio State University branch in Wooster Ohio to study bio molecular engineering with a minor in Animal science.  Mind you I had never been away from the farm for over a week before without my family so three and a half hours away living on my own was a very big step!! At first I enjoyed it, immediately made a couple friends and was very active with campus life, and did very well in my academics.  Freshman year went by smoothly, so I transferred to main campus in Columbus where I could put most of my focus on Engineering.  As you can assume going from a small technical school to one of the most competitive public inner city colleges was again another major culture shock.

During my sophomore year, I was told by multiple male authority figures that girls are not supposed to be more successful than men and that I should choose another field of study if I ever want to be able to get married or have a family like what most young girls want.  This was before I found self confidence in myself to know that was not true. Coming from a very old fashion type family I was taught to obey what the men said, no exceptions even if I didn't agree.  Knowing what I know now I would have begun pursuing a degree in education much sooner rather than spending my first three years in bio-molecular engineering at The Ohio State University.  I realize now that I should have known better than to pursue something I did not fully have my heart set on. But the stubborn person I am, I was mostly interested in proving people wrong on their thoughts about me and that I was smart enough to do anything and be successful at it.

Engineering is a very male dominated field so I went into my first two classes with more determination and focus than ever before.  I Aced the first, but not without its hardships.  Out of the roughly one hundred students in my class there were three girls, me being one of them.  My professor was great in trying to include us without pulling too much attention to the fact that we had a major disadvantage.  We were put into project groups at the beginning of the semester who we worked with throughout the whole period.  I was in a group with four other men.  I was very intimidated, already being a little shy and being afraid of rejection I wanted to fall back into being the invisible quiet girl I was in early high-school.  It also did not help that computer programming was not my cup of tea; I was more into the chemical and science end of the spectrum so I felt that I did not have much to contribute to the group naturally.  Little did I know how much I would learn throughout the course and contributing to the group in other aspects of the projects for example applying the programs we developed to the real world industries.  I quickly became best friends with one of my group members Sam.  We had a lot of the same classes conveniently so we were able to help each other with other classes such as physics and chemistry.  Chemistry was my favorite subjects at the time which Sam seemed to struggle with frequently and vice versa with me and physics.  So we started tutoring each other which soon turned into every Monday and Wednesday night with our project group, then later to five of six more groups who needed help in the same classes.  

              This is how I found out I really had a passion for teaching instead of fighting through engineering with my fists held high to prove that just because I was a girl didn't mean I could do anything a man couldn't do.   So, after my second year of being at The Ohio State University I decided I had had enough of the city and moved back home and change my major to apply to the Patton School of education here at Ohio University.  I look back to when the individuals that told me I shouldn’t be in engineering because I am a women still makes me a little upset and even more so that I didn’t prove them wrong. But realize that my intentions to achieve success were wrong and in the end, if I was to prove them wrong I would have done myself a disfavor and ultimately struggle with finding personal success in my own life.

The Success

            November of my third year I moved back to Amesville Ohio to my family farm.  I was happy with the decision I made to move back, I was definitely happier but in a sense I felt I had failed because I did not finished what I set out to do at Ohio State.  Little did I know a year later my personal and professional success would be where it is today.  I helped my parents start their second business which I now help manage; I compete in modern pentathlons with a team, train thoroughbred horses in Eventing and coach local horse riders in showjumping and dressage as well as go to school as a full time student.  I have never felt as successful as I do now on a personal level, I have found my passion for teaching and have been fortunate enough to continue my hobbies and become successful in the professional world.

Perseverance

“Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.”

-      Julie Andrews

As popular as this saying is, it has always rang true in my life.  Though everything I’ve experienced in the past three years I have faced many failures some easier to overcome than others but I have always remembered that through perseverance I was able to get back up which always had a rewarding outcome big or small.  Being told I could not do something was a hard pill to swallow, especially since it was not true.  Was a significant learning experience that I would have never been able to deal with until I was faced with the situation.  Instead of letting him destroy my confidence I learned that no matter what people say or think, if I’m happy and confident in what I am doing then I have found success. 

      I believe that growing up on a farm and moving to the city has allowed me to gain the self-confidence I need to preserver and achieve the goals I have set for the future to achieve personal success. And I encourage the young women going through college or tough situations in their life to persevere and focus on success for the future. No Exceptions!

Picture Citations:
http://quotes-kid.com/cinderella-quotes-about-dreams.htm
Quote Citations:

Edwards, Julie Andrews. "Julie Andrews Edwards Quotes." Julie Andrews Edwards Quotes (Author of Mandy). Good Reads Inc, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6781.Julie_Andrews_Edwards>.