Agriculture and Alcohol Reagan Phillips I was scrolling through a scholarship website when I found this scholarship. As soon as I started reading it, I knew I had to apply. I grew up in a very farming-based family in a town built on the agricultural city that was slowly moving away from it. Growing up, I was considered weird and different because I did not dress the same or have the same interests as the other kids. They also did not know that most of my family were severe alcholics due to their belief that therapy or talking about how you felt was weak. My dad was a big drinker growing up; he had lost his dad when he was eighteen and never recovered from it. My aunt was an alcoholic who was drunk more times than she was sober due to her failed rodeo career as a barrel racer. My great grandpa, I've never seen him sober due to drinking all of his life. I have grown up around alcohol and can see the damage it does to not just that person but everyone around them. These experiences have shaped my decision not to drink, as I have seen firsthand the destructive effects of alcoholism. I have seen it ruin marriages, break up sisters, and be the only thing you are left with after everyone else leaves. It is heartbreaking to look back and see the people they were before they let their addiction consume them. Something that helped me overcome these hardships is my horses. We have nine at the moment. They helped me find a reason to live and why I was here. We didn't have enough money to justify buying a 20,000-dollar finished barrel horse, so we got several 9,000 dollars or fewer to train ourselves. My little sister excelled at this due to her lack of fear. I, not so much. We now have one finished 1D barrel hose and two others close behind. We grew up in rodeos, and I couldn't imagine not doing them for the rest of my life. My mom also was terrific at growing flowers and plants. She was what got me into horticulture. This year, she convinced my dad to grow me a field of sunflowers, and it turned out amazing. My dad has a small farm that has grown corn and soybeans. While she was more of the pretty things like flowers and beautiful plants, I enjoyed more of the produce part, something I felt I could justify growing due to multiple things coming from it. I love to grow cucumbers and green beans. Plants are something I am genuinely passionate about. My high school was fortunate enough to have an FFA program and agriculture classes. That was where I learned you could go to college for agriculture and have specific courses for plant propagation and animal sciences. I was utterly mind-blown because college always seemed out of reach and pointless to me. So, when I learned of this, I realized I could do something I genuinely enjoyed. I knew it was something I wanted to do. I know that this prompt asked me to explain why I might deserve this more than someone else, but the truth is, I don't know if I do. While yes my struggles and story may be sad, there are people out there who have it worse. And if they apply and this scholarship goes to them instead, I wish them all the better.