You Always Need to Be Aware by Makenzie

You Always Need to Be Aware by Makenzie - August 2026 Scholarship Essay

Standing in a show ring showing sheep and navigating school, work, and everything in between seem like two completely different things. That is where I learned that I was wrong. Feedback comes in many different forms. Some are critical and extremely insightful, while others are positive and not helpful in the slightest. One of the best pieces of feedback I’ve ever received was from a sheep judge who told me, “You always need to be aware of you and your surroundings.” In the moment, this feedback from a judge meant simply watching for other showmen, crazy sheep, my personal actions, or the judge themselves. Only years later would I learn just how much that simple sentence changed my life.
During the Hubbard County 4-H Sheep Show, in the Intermediate Showmanship division, I was only given one sentence of feedback: “You always need to be aware of you and your surroundings.” After receiving it, I nodded along like I always do, not thinking much of this feedback. I applied it during the rest of the showmanship round and ended up winning. The majority of the time, any feedback I’m given during showmanship leaves my mind as if it was never there. I completely thought the feedback I had received that day was gone for good. I’d go with the rest of my day, the rest of the county fair, and the rest of my life.
Roughly three years later, while preparing for the Minnesota 4-H Statewide Camp, Youth Exploring Learning and Leadership Opportunities (YELLO), I realized how much that one line of feedback had affected my life. One of the major challenges of this camp’s facilities was space. Lots of the spaces we were using were cramped and hard to navigate. As one of the facilitators for this camp, I had an extra day to explore and prepare. Walking around on your own is completely different from walking around with 11 campers. While leading my group around the camp, I realized I was always aware of the cars and people passing by, what all 11 of my campers were doing, and how I was responding to the campers. Never before had I realized how aware I had become of everything in life.
Fast-forward a couple of months to early August. I was walking down a dirt path running between two fields, one with canola and the other with rye. After a few more steps, I stopped. This was the first time I acknowledged what the fields were actually planted with. In the past, I would have just said they were fields and moved on. It’s small in the big picture of life, but when you think about a field, it is home to more organisms than we realize. As I walked, I watched as grasshoppers jumped further into the rows of rye and watched as two little butterflies flew into the canola. It was also at that moment that I became aware of the people in the area with me: my brothers in the tractor, and my mom and dad in the combine with my little sister. Then I became aware of reality. The whole reason I was standing on that dirt path was because I was going to take my senior pictures. I became aware of just how quickly life moves: how fast people grow up around us, how quickly environments change, and how quickly we change and evolve as people.
Feedback, often disregarded, can leave a lasting impact on our minds. You just have to choose to acknowledge it. Being aware of our surroundings is one thing, but being aware of yourself is another. Both are important in life. Both are important in how a person changes and grows. As I finish writing this, I have also become aware of how reflective I have become. Some say the art of reflecting comes with time and practice. I say it comes from the ability to become aware of your surroundings and yourself.