I can safely say I have always held myself to huge standards and high expectations. The bar has always been set incredibly high, and I strived to meet those goals.  Naturally, my competitive nature pushed me to be a perfectionist, and a little scared of failure. You can imagine my uneasiness about trying the Ag Mechanics contest my senior year. Not only was it an extremely challenging contest, but I also didn’t know the first thing about tractor parts, was known for welding my tip shut, and had never heard of sweating copper.

The first few practice contests left me feeling like a complete failure. I somehow managed to burn my hand holding copper tubing and shock myself on a circuit. Knowing that giving up wasn’t an option in my mind, I reached out to my advisors and teammates for extra help. As I began to put more effort and time into it, by the end I began to see a lot of growth in myself. At the final practice contest of the year, the same girl who burned and shocked herself, placed high individual overall. 

I’m still not an Ag Mech pro, but what I did learn is how silly trying to be perfect is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a very competitive person – and that’s okay, but we can’t let our competitiveness ruin the experiences, take the fun out of the process, and make perfection our end goal. As long as you’re challenging yourself, trying new things, and learning along the way – then that’s a win in my book. Being the best possible version of yourself is way more important than being the perfect version!