Six years ago I made a decision. I packed up pretty much all of my belongings, a two year old and headed to College Station. I left my full time job with a construction company and my bartending job on the side with the goal of getting that degree. I moved in with my mom and started College full time again for the first time in 8 years. I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew that I wanted to finish my education.  I was 26 years old and boy did I feel that 26 years old. I was very shy, felt really out of place, and needless to say, had a lot of growing to do. At the time I didn’t know this decision would change my whole life, my only focus was to finish my last two years of school, go back home and eventually get married.  Needless to say, God had other plans.

That first semester rocked my world. Even with my total GPA of 3.5 at the end of the semester, I got put on Academic Probation. Yes, you read that right. You see, I was an AgBusiness major and I had taken accounting that semester and got a D! Yes! A D and I was an AgBusiness major, like I said God had other plans. At A&M, the AgBusiness program has certain core classes that you have to make a certain GPA in, accounting was one of those classes and since that was the only core class I took that semester my GPA was a 1.0. I was devastated. I can remember crying my eyes out in the back of the kitchen at Chili’s on the phone with my mom trying to figure out my life! I thought it was over but it was only getting started. I had to meet with the Dean and he actually told me about an AgEconomics program. It was similar to AgBusiness, had no core classes, had an entrepreneurship class, and I would be off Academic Probation. I was sold and switched programs.  See, I had had a dream of owning a feed store one day. When I was younger, I would go Hallettsville when we went to our deer lease and they had this feed store there that I loved! I wanted one similar but a little bigger sort of like the D&D store in Seguin.  By the way, if you have never seen that store it is HUGE!

During that first semester I also took an Animal Science class. This class changed my life, period. Everything that I thought I had wanted to do workwise was out the window. Besides the feed store, I now had new dreams. I wanted to run a cattle operation and I wanted to be involved with Agriculture. It took me roughly a year of taking Animal Science classes along with my other course load but I made another big decision and added Animal Science as a double major to my degree. This added roughly an extra year to my graduation date but I did not care. I was soaking up knowledge left and right. Extremely grateful that I went back to school when I did, I actually wanted to learn and I cared a lot more.

The AgEconomics program was a huge blessing in disguise. I met so many mentors and was able to network with so many people. The best part was in one of the classes, you have to start a business from scratch. That class was probably one of the hardest classes I have taken due to the amount of work required but I loved everything about it. My business was a cow/calf operation, where I sold preconditioned steers and bred heifers. I loved that class and my Professor Dr. Rister. He was one of the best Professors I have ever had.  I still have all my binders under my bed from those classes, that way when I am ready to open a business I can pull out all my old tools.

One day during my first year at A&M, I was sitting in my statistics class and I saw this girl wearing a Texas Aggie CattleWomen shirt. I actually got the courage to ask her about the shirt (told y’all I was shy) and she told me about this Collegiate Organization and that I should check it out. It took me a whole year before I got the courage to go to one meeting! At that meeting they made us stand up and introduce ourselves. Of course I sat in the back and tried to hide, I was literally ringing with sweat when I had to stand up and say my name and where I was from. I mean I was terrified! Did I mention I am currently the President-Elect for the State Organization? A whole year, I wasted a whole year because I was afraid of what other people would think of me and I didn’t even know the people yet! Crazy! Needless to say, I joined the organization and haven’t look back. I have served as the Treasurer and President for the Texas Aggie CattleWomen, Vice President and currently President-Elect for the Texas CattleWomen and I am also on the Board of Directors for the American National CattleWomen. This organization has given me so much life. I am so thankful for all the people that I have met along the way. While at the time I didn’t realize it was happening but I have been slowly growing. I can speak in front of people without sweating, I can run meetings, I can help host events, and plan them well too. If you have never heard of Texas CattleWomen or are interested in learning more about it, please reach out to me. I would love to help you find a local chapter. Tune in next time for when I finish my college adventures and tell you about the next couple of decisions that have set my soul on fire even more than it already was.

As always, spread some love.

XOXO

Casey