The BYU-I Livestock Center

*For my color photo class we had to do a series, choose any topic we wanted. I decided to document the Livestock Center, here is my Artist Statement:

As we get older we each tend find our own “niche” or group. In high school I was part of the theatre department. I remember when I would tell people what I love to do there would often be a laugh followed by the expected, “oh, theatre freak”. Yes it’s true, we were weird, but I couldn’t help but feel that no one really understood what went on. There was so much more than doing weird modern dance moves. The things we study, the process we go through to produce different pieces of art, the science of it all. Despite my desire to explain to everyone what really went on, I would laugh along and agree, “yep, that’s me”.

Now, at this University, I have been a part of multiple organizations. I feel even stronger that no one can possibly understand or appreciate what there is to ‘us’ unless they truly immerse themselves in the program. There is so much I don’t understand about people that I wish I had time to find out. If there is one program here that I tend to generalize then not give a second thought to, it is the Department of Agribusiness, Plant and Animal Sciences; or more recognizably known as those students who spend a great amount of their time at the Livestock Center. To be honest when I hear Livestock I still think back on the times my family and I would go to the rodeo and see these farm happy high school students, with their leather cowboy hat and giant silver buckled belt, chasing cattle around trying to rope them. “This is fun?” But I am determined to rid myself of the automatic stereotyping disease I have.

There is something about witnessing honest passion that truly brings a whole new perspective to life. These students, just like me, were showing the same kind of determination I have when working on a project with these animals. The way the professor makes farm jokes, they way the students interact with each other, it isn’t foreign at all. By spending time at the Livestock Center I was able to understand so much more not only what the Agriculture program is all about, but also understand more about people and how similar we all are even in the strikingly diverse environments we surround ourselves with.