On Friday, October 4, I celebrated my 26th birthday. I am now officially closer to 30 than 20, which is alarming to think about, so I’m not going to! Instead, what I’ve been thinking about a lot is my 22nd birthday, four years ago, and how on that particular birthday I could barely get out of bed without breaking down into tears. While it is a distant memory now, thinking about it reminds me about how things get better with time, as long as you have hope.
In typical Brandon fashion, let’s start with a little background about why I was thinking about my 22nd birthday.
Each year, for the last four years, I have had the opportunity to attend World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. At Expo, you can talk with vendors from various areas of the dairy industry and see the best dairy cattle in the world vying for supreme champion. This year, I was at Expo taking pictures of staff members volunteering and I happened to enter the show ring in time for the announcement of the Brown Swiss grand champion, and I was lucky I did.
As I found a seat in the packed arena, the judge for the Brown Swiss show, Joe Sparrow, was ready to name his grand champion but he wanted to say a few words first. What happened next was one of the most raw and emotional speeches I have ever had the privilege of hearing. He spoke about what an honor it was to judge at such a prestigious event and to be the youngest judge of the Brown Swiss show. He thanked numerous family members, friends, and mentors who supported him and his passion for showing Brown Swiss cows. Lastly, he thanked his father who gave him $800 to purchase his first Brown Swiss calf when he was younger.
You can watch the full video here, and, even if you don’t understand dairy cattle showing, I dare you to watch the full video and not tear up.
Listening to this speech, and watching it back now, you can tell his heart was full that day and he was truly thankful for this opportunity. That really hit home, and right then I was taken back to the very first time I attended World Dairy Expo four years ago, and three days before my 22nd birthday.
2015 was not a good year, and my 22nd birthday was not a good birthday. While I am usually a positive person, I distinctly remember waking up that Sunday feeling miserable. I wasn’t sick, I wasn’t in physical pain, but I was in mental and emotional pain and my body couldn’t handle it this day. I went to church that morning and just cried, then I went and saw a movie by myself and thought how completely and utterly alone I felt. That night, many of my friends had exams they needed to study for and couldn’t make it to dinner.
Mentally, I felt crushed that day, and my heart did not feel full, which was a problem because I knew that people cared about me. I received text messages and calls from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday, but I still felt alone that day. I couldn’t shake it and I hated it because that wasn’t me, but I couldn’t help it.
As I came back to the present, I continued to think about those feelings from four years ago into the next day, which was my 26th birthday. However, on this day, I woke up with a smile on my face because I knew I got to spend the day at Expo and I was going to dinner with friends that night.
Time can be good, perspective can be better. That was a bad day four years ago, in the mix of a bad year. But a bad year out of 26 total years so far isn’t very much in the grand scheme of things, and, with a little patience, everything can change in that same time frame very quickly.
The bright spot of that week four years ago – I made my first trip to World Dairy Expo. That, along with the better times that would surely follow and some much-needed support from friends, helped launch me on a positive journey in life and the dairy industry I never thought I would be on.
For my birthday this year, we went to Essen Haus in Madison, passed around more boots of beer than we should have, we ate, we laughed, we had a good night.
As I sat back for a moment, I thought about those feelings from four years ago – the depression, the anger, and the sadness – and compared it to my current setting when the words of Tom Thibodeau, a professor of servant leadership at Viterbo University, came to mind. (If you haven’t heard him speak before and have the time, watch this video.) He said, “You know you’re in the presence of good people when you experience three things – joy, peace and you never want it to end.”
I smiled and thought about the previous weekend when I had dinner and brunch with some friends from college that happened to be in town. We caught up, we reminisced, and we laughed as we always do and it was a good weekend.
The feelings from four years ago are now just a faint memory.
Thibodeau also says we shouldn’t be afraid to tell the people we care about how we feel. I thought about four years ago again, and I thought about Joe Sparrow (the grateful Brown Swiss judge), and I stood up to tell everyone present there how I felt, and I would like to share it with all of you too because you matter to me.
“Today, my heart is full and I am truly grateful for you all being here.”
Sharing that sentiment, along with a little bit of why I felt how I did, was like shedding a weight I had been carrying for four years. And maybe that’s why I’m writing this story today, to help others shed that weight and know that better days are ahead if they are looking for them, and a laugh can’t be too far away from improving the present.
A final thought. I just attended a Judah and the Lion concert. I have talked about them before and I will continue to talk about them because of their energy, honest music, and endless positive vibes. If you get a chance to see them live, go for it, you won’t regret it. One thing that struck me was when Judah took a moment to speak to the audience, and what he said really resonated with me. He said, “Hope isn’t a feeling, it’s an option, a choice you can make each day.”
So long as you have hope, better days are ahead, and I’ll be right there with you cheering you on.
Life 
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