Face Your Fears

 There is no doubt that life comes with choices and risks. As we grow up, we encounter more choices that need to be made and more risks that need to be taken. When making these decisions, there is one common word that is attached to everything we do, fear.

Fear is actually important when making life decisions because it makes us think about consequences or outcomes. If you’re scared of jumping off of a bridge because you don’t think it’s safe, fear comes into play and perhaps saved you from a lot of pain. When fear holds you back from opportunities is when it becomes a challenge.

When going through life, my biggest regret is the chances or opportunities I didn’t take. In hind site, my biggest accomplishments are those risks I took!

I grew up in agriculture, and naturally I became very passionate about the industry. As I grew up, I wanted to share my story with everyone around me. I took photos, shared them on social media, and struck up a conversation with anyone who wanted to talk about farming.

Before I knew it, I was in college and surrounded by amazing peers who also were passionate about agriculture. I realized that my ‘advocating’ had hit a plateau, because the people I was surrounded by didn’t need to know my story and I stopped talking about why agriculture is important.

Then an opportunity came along that stopped me in my tracks. I thought about it and even turned it down a few times, because I was scared. I was looking fear in the face and letting it win.

Once I realize that my reasons for saying no were about fear, I decided that I wasn’t going to let that decision keep me from an experience. Therefore, I competed in my first pageant in the Miss America Organization.

Of course it was scary! I legit hadn’t performed a dance in three years and hadn’t done a dance solo in about eight years. Then there was the fitness portion, which you can just imagine how intimidating that is! But then there was the interview, where I got to explain my passion for agriculture. My entire platform was around agriculture, and I got to talk to other contestants and supporters about my passion and even brought visitors to my farm, someplace they had never been before!

My new motto is that if you can walk on stage in a swimsuit, you can do anything. More importantly my experience in pageants taught me how to reach out from my agriculture industry and really advocate to people who aren’t connected to their food. Fear could’ve kept me from meeting friends, traveling to new cities, serving my community, and from sharing my story. As 2018 approaches, remember that fear is just a word and even make it a resolution to try something that scares you; it may just be life changing!

Lexi Marek

Past FFA Member

FarmHer Marketing and Communications Manager

Lexi Marek is the 6^th generation on her family’s diversified livestock and grain farm from Southeast Iowa.  A graduate of Iowa State University, she is now the Marketing + Communications Manager at FarmHer, based in Urbandale, Iowa. Her daily duties include sharing the stories that FarmHer covers from women across the country through traditional and digital media. The FarmHer TV Show on RFD-TV just launched a Lexi also hosts the new segment of the FarmHer TV show called ‘The Next Generation’. Lexi enjoys traveling anywhere and everywhere but the end goal is always to end back on her family’s farm raising pigs and cattle and continuing the future of agriculture.