I pulled on my rubber boots and grabbed my screwdriver as I headed to my first Soils Career Development Event (CDE) practice of the year. The temperature was below freezing, and it didn’t take me very long to realize that I had no clue what I was doing. My teammates and I were already thinking about quitting before the first competition was over. Our team received almost dead last that day, but we decided to make a goal to move on to state, and we were determined to reach that goal.

As we studied and practiced more, we slowly saw improvement. We kept with it and attended many more practice CDEs. With every contest, our scores got better and we felt more confident. We went to districts with one thing in mind, which was state. As we patiently waited for our results, we started to second-guess ourselves and our ability to judge soils. Finally, we received our results and found out we qualified for state! We went to state and rocked that soils contest.

After state, my teammates and I looked back through the year and realized how close we were to giving up. We realized we could have missed all of the friendships and learning experiences that we had gained. Sometimes you have to put on your rubber boots, get your hands dirty and put in the extra work to accomplish your task. You, too, will find out that with a little bit of luck and a whole lot of persistence and determination, you can and will meet all of your goals.