Recently, I have worked to prepare for the Job Interview Contest for FFA, and one of the many commonly asked questions is who I would consider to be my greatest inspiration. This one, among others, stumped me most. If I had to say what my greatest inspiration is, it would be easy: success. That’s my greatest inspiration; but the question didn’t ask what, it asked who. That’s where my answer gets trickier. I have many influential people in my life, but I figured for time’s sake I should narrow that list down just a teensy bit more. I needed to find people that best fit the requirements for Emma’s Greatest Inspiration. Obviously that’s no small feat. Still, it came down to one major GCF (Greatest Common Factor) that they all needed to have: success. When little kids get asked what they want to be when they grow up, you typically get answers like a firefighter, teacher or veterinarian. Little Emma P.’s answer was always, “Successful.” I want to be the girl that can sit back after about one hundred years and tell stories about how I became famous, got it done and made it happen. I want to be the grandma that the littles look up to and say how she’s so cool or how they want to follow in her footsteps. I want that to be me, so when I finally decided upon who my greatest inspirations were, there was no doubt that success would be in bold under the word criteria. 

Naturally, when you think of people to look up to, your mind quickly takes you down the path through Hollywood, and you arrive at a destination with a sign that probably reads the name of some celebrity in bright lights. Since I had to be different, my mind took the other route, to “coach land.” From there I got sent to some random basement with a cowhide rug and roughly about a trillion banners, ribbons, plaques, and fat heads. This ever-humble abode belongs to Sue Schafer, the Agriculture teacher and FFA Advisor at Taylorville High School and my livestock judging coach. Her house and garage alone exemplify the definition of success, but that’s just the surface, and I have been told to never judge a book by its cover. I have been judging on Sue’s team since my 8th grade year, and it has definitely been an experience. I have learned a lot about time management, public speaking, being more conversational and obviously animals, more specifically livestock, in general. Schafer is the true genius, but the thing about her is that she’ll tell you that she scored the same as the monkey on the ACT. She has made it pretty freakin’ far in life--her and her children’s numerous national awards and achievements really exemplify that--but that fact is, you can’t tell that by her test scores. She barreled through the assumptions that she wouldn’t make it far after high school, put her head down and got to work.  When she did this she became one of the most successful and inspirational people in my life.

I then turned around and headed back to the celebs. Since the day we watched her movie in Freshman Seminar, Temple Grandin has been on my radar. She’s a scientific writer and speaker on both autism and animal behaviors along with how similar behaviors and characteristics can be seen in both. Being a cattlewoman in her time was difficult enough, but she also has a disability, which made it even harder to get in the door, let alone get a place at the table. Still, she brought her own chair. As seen in the movie, she’s constantly given dirty looks and eye rolls when asked about her career. The men thought of her as some little girl too naive for the dirty world of market animals. Instead, she went on to change that world. She ignored those who told her she was crazy and the ones who claimed her ideas were far fetched and unnecessary. She continued to move convincing person after person, and now she has written over 60 scientific papers that have been published in major journals and newspapers. She single-handedly changed the way animals get slaughtered to make it a more calm experience that’s stress-free for both the humans and the animals. All she did was observe their behaviors and how they react in different situations. Grandin made a path in a testosterone-filled field, which opened up more and more opportunities for females on the Agriculture tract and her success can be seen in tens of thousands, not just her numerous awards. Though some of those prestigious awards do include seven Emmys for the movie on her life; Good’s Choice Awards Best Nonfiction Book; and the James Beard Award for Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. Like Schafer, Temple persevered through the doubters, trials and tribulations to become an extremely successful woman in a male-dominated field. I can only hope to follow in her footsteps and change many minds along the way.

For the third slot in my roster, my person comes in a little closer to home. In the bedroom down the hall to be exact. Like many young kids, my dad has always been in my corner. I have looked up to him, literally, since day one. My dad is a farmer, and unlike the stereotypical one, he’s educated, driven and most of all, successful. No matter who he converses with, whether or not he actually likes them, he speaks to them in the same way. He treats everyone as his equal; and though he has many accomplishments, he’s still the most humble person in the room. He’s the guy to call when I need to figure stuff out. Just this fall, as I drove home from a judging practice I felt tremendously overwhelmed about our schedule and my own commitment to the sport. I had already talked to my coach about ways that I could work judging around my dreaded basketball season and she gave me the go ahead to play, but as usual, I was already stressed about the months to come. I knew I didn’t love basketball like I love the livestock industry, not even close, but I’m a people pleaser. The team just hired a new coach, and he had already talked about how he was so excited for me to play with them. Like always, I just smiled and nodded, nodded and smiled. When I saw my livestock judging practices written out on paper it really got me scared. I knew we would practice for basketball daily and then have bi-weekly games until February. When I thought this through in my own cluttered brain just made me want to curl up and cry, so instead, I called my dad. He answered the phone like he always does and told me what I already knew he would say. He explained and re-explained that I couldn’t be worried about everyone and that I needed to do what’s best for me, and to do what I love. To sum it all up, I obviously chose judging, but without my dad, I would probably sit down to write  this at 2:00 am after a long basketball practice and three videoed sets of oral reasons. Thankfully, I’m not. Success sounds cocky, but my dad found a way to get where he is today and still be the most down-to-Earth guy in the world. Fingers crossed I can make him proud and do the same. 

Coming in from the close bottom pair is my mother dearest. She could have made this list simply on her sheer ability to put up with my siblings and I, but there are many other things that show her success. Her greatest gift pertains to her work with kids, whether it’s her own or the randos she finds in her classroom, but that still isn’t the most successful part about her. Her balance takes the cake. My mom has four kids at home; actually five, when you include my dad whom she says acts like her child, and sixteen at work. Everybody knows not a single kid is the same as another, so how she finds out the best way to help them all, truly astonishes me. She cares so much for all of her many children and prioritizes them over herself, time and time again. She knows the most important thing and focuses on that, before she works on the little things. This makes her so successful. When she leaves work, she comes home and begins to fire orders like a drill sergeant, assigns small tasks to us kids and then tackles the bigger things herself. I believe that this is a habit of a successful leader and an overall successful person. The ability to delegate jobs and responsibilities to get more done in a short amount of time is valuable in the game of life. The best example is my mom; she works all day and then comes home to work at what is the equivalent to her second job. She never stops and she never quits. She’s truly a successful inspiration. 

If these four people were put in a class and I had to choose who inspires me most, I simply couldn’t do it. Although if I needed to explain my reasoning, it would be this: these four people are my greatest inspirations.  Although they’re different, they all hold one thing in common: their success. It may not always be shown by awards or fancy banners on the walls, but just through conversation with them you can see they’re experienced people who persevere through the rough parts and get it done, and that’s what I call success. Success: the ability to tell your kids all the stories of your youth and all that you did. Let me tell you, I have read and heard many stories of The Great Sue Schafer, Temple Grandin, Peter B. and Megan Pistorius and they are the epitome of success.