Make Your Best Better

 About the time my family started setting-up to farm I was pledging my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hand to larger service, and my health to better living for my club, my community, my country, and my world. 4-H would become one of my major commitments throughout junior-high and high-school. It was program with enough depths and width to keep an aspiring renaissance man engaged. I learned public speaking with 4-H a skill that I would lean on heavily years later. I also learned how to make posters, and even comic books: haven't done quite as much with those. I explored web-design at Tech Camp, and responsibility as volunteer leader at youth camp. I traveled hours away from home for the first time attend academic conference on the UT Knoxville Campus. I competed in interviews on the state-level. At the end of my career I even served as minority representative on the student government for the entire state. I helped plan events for an organization of over 300,000 students. In the local clubs i learn the rudiments of  parliamentary procedure. I learned about organized events, On the regional and state levels i learned about campaigning, and networking. Wherever 4-H took me there was something to learn.

However, the main lesson was always the same. No matter how good you had become, you could always get better. That continual pursuit f excellence resonated with me, and has remained with me ever since. This world is not a place of resting, laurels make poor beds. 

At position I have held I studied hard, and asked questions, and tried to understand the work. At the same time I put in my full effort. I didn't look for the minimal requirement, but for the maximum possibility.  Even if i am the best there is, I can still make my best better. 

I have not found many people who share my commitment. I have met a few who questioned it. I do more than i need to, expending energy that might be reserved for something else. I do not get a return equal to what I give most times. If we were looking at this from a purely mercenary perspective the whole idea is pretty foolish. For me, it isn't about financial gain, or social gain, it is about personal gain. 

What I get out of my perpetual striving is simply the satisfaction of the striving itself, of overcoming challenges, and of growing. As in 4-H so in all of life there is always something to learn. I want to learn and master as much as possible.