Running head: farm girl

Running head: FARM GIRL Farm Girl Summary Janae Montford Dr. Bess-Montgomery English 115 January 26, 2013 Jessica Hemauer wrote Farm Girl, her story of her life as a young child while growing up on a farm. She woke up at 5: 00 every morning to a daily routine of “ sanitizing milk machines, preparing equipment, and feeding newborn calves”. Being a farm girl made her different from the other students at school, she wasn’t able to join in the conversations because she didn’t participate in the activities they did. She felt like an outsider and had trouble fitting in. In 8th grade she is allowed to play basketball as long as she does her chores before and after school. This allows her to be included in the discussion, but she notices she still has more responsibility than the other students. As her family’s farm increases so does the demand for more help than they can provide and still live their lives. Their father says to them “ he would rather have them be more involved in school and go to college; he gives them the option to work on the farm if they want to”. No longer having to mandatorily work on the farm, she becomes more involved in school and even took on a job as a waitress. She still notices that she’s different, very mature, and can handle more responsibility than others. Some days she reflects back to life on the farm and realizes that it has taught her a “ valuable lesson making her the person she is as an adult”. I think Jessica wrote this essay to share with us the way she grew up, and how hard work taught her responsibility. She has a wide audience but mainly young adults; everyone at one point has felt the pressure of fitting in with the social environment along with dealing with some kind of responsibility. She had a positive grateful tone throughout the essay even while discussing times when she felt sad and depressed. She now knows the outcome of the things she went through so this allows her to smile about the life she had growing up. While reading this essay I felt a great deal of respect for her being able to handle the tasks she had at such a young age. I personally have never had to really work for anything, so I really appreciate hearing the story of someone who learned such great skills for life and is appreciative. She is the type of person I would love to work with just because she works so hard and doesn’t complain. I am very proud of her and I believe that all children should have some kind of duty to keep them occupied and to teach them life skills. She is an asset to any company and they should be grateful to have such a wonderful worker like her.