Blog for Friday 11/27

Many people would feel constricted knowing that what they were going to do was pretty much etched in stone before birth.  For me, it has always been more of a comfort zone knowing what I was in store for me.  I never really even considered any other profession other than a career in citrus.  My family owns a fruit packing house and following my graduation in May, I will also join the business becoming the fourth generation of Roe’s who farm for a living.  The memory I am using emerges from one Summer afternoon of my youth, when my grandfather and I spent the day pulling vines, pruning sprouts, and fixing irrigation in the groves surrounding my house.  This day stands out to me because it was the day that I learned to set my first tree.  Well, after we got that tree in the ground, my grandfather gave me a firm pat on the back without saying a single word.  This day stands out in my mind for another reason as well; the day I learned that acknowledging a job well done is one of the greatest rewards one can give, or receive.  Similarly my mom always used to tell me, “good thinking 99″, for something especially clever or special I had done.  She used it sparingly so it still held value to me when she said it.  It wasn’t until my later high school years that I began admiring all things old school, which included watching TV land all the time.  I learned that “good thinking 99″ was Maxwell Smarts catch phrase for his hot parter, agent 99.  Both these are examples of me being praised for something good I had done, and it occurred to me that for me, praise is my interface between the work I do, my percieved quality of that work, and whether I am apt to pursue “that” again (what ever that is).

While I don’t think that day in the grove with my grandfather ultimately steered me toward a career in citrus, that is where I will end up.