I've had these old 4-H ribbons and trophies kicking around for over 30 years. Not once have I needed them to prove how competent I am at such endeavors as baking bread, public speaking, or cross stitch. Because of that, I'm pretty comfortable preserving them with this photo and letting them go the way of many other pieces of useless memorabilia.
The fact is that I barely remember any of the projects that I did to earn most of these awards. That's not surprising since what I do remember is that almost all of them were completed in the final days before the yearly 4-H fair - a skill that I still possess. I prefer to call it working well under pressure.
Given that I put so little effort into the projects and that they certainly don't indicate my worth or skills today, why does it sting so much that the small handful of red ribbons and the one lone white ribbon were all earned in cooking?
Or rather because of my lack of skill in cooking.
Suddenly, I feel the need for a 4-H do-over.
