What defines a Michala?

My sister Erica with "the nameless baby"

Just about 21 years ago I was born onto this Earth. As much surprise to my parents I wasn’t exactly what they were expecting, I was yet another girl. I was number three to be exact, after my dad had done much hoping for a boy this time. (P.S. he finally got a boy in the form of a grandson). They had it all planned out they would finally have their first boy, name picked out, you know the usually preparation for babies arrival kind of stuff. So you see when I was born that put an immediate halt on all their plans. Now the question became “What do we name her?” Lucky for me at the time the whole family, including my sisters were obsessed with the old west television show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” where the actress Jane Seymour depicts the character of a doctor, by the name of Michaela. As my sisters came to visit the baby (still nameless), my mom asked what do you think we should call her, thank goodness out of all the names they could choose they chose Michala (yes, they spelled my name wrong).

Abbie instilled her passion for
"The Big Brown Cow"

Michaela may have been a doctor in the movie but this Michala chose to go a whole different route. It all began with the family I was born into. You see my whole family is involved in agriculture in some and I knew from a young age I would follow in their footsteps. My father who was once a dairy farmer, and now a grass crop farmer, instilled in me the love for being outside, especially on the farm. My mother on the other hand took a different route in agricultural as a quality control specialist on dairy farmers, passed on her hard work ethic. Both of my sisters Abbie and Erica have had very different impacts on my life today. Abbie was my reason for developing a deep passion for agricultural but more specifically, Brown Swiss dairy cows. Erica on the other hand is our fashionista of the family who has passed that along to me further developing my professionalism skills. Each of my family has providing me with different sets of skills, drive, and their own passions to make me the person I am today. More importantly they have provided me with love and support that has gotten me here today.

Mom and Dad have always been the biggest
Supporters

In a young persons’ life there comes time to answer the question, “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” For me it became the time to put everything I’ve known, learned, and created a passion for to the test, who would I be? The decision might have been difficult for some but more me, it was easier than I thought, staring me right in the face, literally. The “AHA” moment came to me while sitting in my agricultural classroom, there was no other place I enjoyed being and no other place that I craved learning. That was it, I knew right then and there I would be an agricultural educator someday. At the time is seemed far off as I was only in the 7^th grade, but here I am in my second year of education at Penn State University majoring in agricultural and extension education. Who would have thought at such a young age I would have been able to make life decisions. I’ve come to realize that was because that was the one thing in my life. that I have been developing since the day I was born, and the one thing that I always knew. In hindsight I’ve chosen to take some additional courses to minor in international agriculture to push myself out of my comfort zone to learn more.

Some may ask how does a profession define who a person is? Who really is Michala? Some may even argue that a career does not define a person, those people have never met an agricultural educator. Let me give you a quick rundown of how that defines me: Michala (the future ag educator) can be defined passionate about what she does, is dedicated to learning/ others learning, flexible, adventurous, creative, and above all caring about others. The page can go on but honestly words can only say so much about a person it’s the actions they take that truly define, who one is.