rodeo
... during the rough stock, I anxiously watch with clenched fists praying that my brother on the bull is able to walk out of the arena and that all my guy friends don’t leave on stretchers. During the summer months it’s rodeo after rodeo every weekend, though I never get sick of them. It’s wake up at 4:00 am, cram the whole family into my dad’s dodge with our border collie Zip, stop at the first McDonald’s we come to, then drive for three or four more hours just to watch a few cute cowboys fall off their rough stock, get sunburned, and drive all the way back home. There are also the occasional county fairs where we watch all the pros and people we hear about but never talk to in person. And the good old rodeo camps where we reacquaint with the people we’ve grown close to over the years but hardly ever get to see and kindly welcome the new campers. During the winter months I vacation from rodeo and join the rest of the world in school and basketball. We only attend one or two local, laid back rodeos a month for the winter season. I always sit at the tippy top of the bleachers in the chilled indoor arena, next to the roaring heater, cuddled up in a blanket, drinking watered down hot cocoa out of a bright colored straw just to keep my hands warm. It seems confusing to most people why anyone would spend most of their money and all of their free time traveling around the state and sometime the surrounding states just for the sport of rodeo. I would say it is one of those things that nobody understands unless they have done it. My family and I have our whole life based around rodeo. If we are not at a rodeo we are either at a rodeo meeting or preparing for one of our events. Unlike high school sports that the community around me is so wrapped up in, I have a future in rodeo. No matter what a person’s age is, it is something that everyone has a role in and the more they play their part the more they enjoy it. And eventually I will be playing my mom’s role when I have kids and hopefully it will continue to be passed down like it was for me. Rodeo never seems to be an expense or a waste of time. Even when the money coming in is not even close to what went out, it is always worth the experience gained. I don’t know of even one person that lives the true western life that would give it up even in the hardest of times. One of the major benefits of rodeo is the people that I get exposed to. Through rodeo I have met many people that otherwise I would never have had the opportunity to meet. During a local camp held about 15 miles from my house, I met several families from all around the United States and some from Canada. Thanks to that, there are very few rodeos that I attend where I don’t know someone or I don’t have a friend’s house to stay at. All of these people are so unique and a lot like me because we have simila...