Concrete Sidewalks

     I always knew growing up on the farm that I never wanted to leave.  My sisters and I had the whole thing planned out, who would take what houses and how we would run our operation together.  But, now I am not there and they are running it without me.  I used to get up every morning and walk down my driveway to the stares of my show heifers and curious calves in the weaning barn.  My family operated as a unit, whether we were rounding up cattle or loading for a show.  We all had our own jobs.  Now I am gone!  Every weekend I get to go home and walk down the driveway to the barn but I don't have my jobs anymore, someone else had to step up.  I hate waking up and putting on clean shoes, and jeans that are loosing their stains.  I strongly dislike living with a...girl from New York who has no clue about Ag (and I live on an Ag floor) or doesn't understand why I wake up so early.  Farming in ingrained in my life.  I may walk to an elevator and walk on concrete to transfer to another building but I still draw cows on my papers, order semen, find new genetics and make sure I am getting pictures from the farm.  People are two to three generations removed from the family farm.  It is because they move away and learn different ways like sleeping in and clean shoes.  Our population is expected to increase to 9 billion people by 2050 now imagine how many college kids come from farms NOW, think about how many won't go back but had plans to before they left.  I worry sometimes that I will go with the "easy way" and not go back to the farm.  But then I talk to a cattleman or cattle woman.  It is instantaneous how quickly my passion for Ag is reignited.  I have Ag running through my veins and I know I will never leave, the real question is if I will run our family's operation with my sisters or I will represent Ag from DC.