Kara KohlhagenENGL 106 – Self Portrait10/7/2018
Salty Enough
Glancing at your surroundings, you notice the diversity of characteristics, appearances, thoughts and abilities. Those qualities make a person unique and one can only imagine the significance they have on an environment. As a person wakes up each day, it is a challenge to adapt and learn about oneself and the environment. Each person has been given the gift of life from God. For me, life is meant to serve as salt to flavor the world.
Being salt is a nice analogy of my life because I have the urge to flavor the world. We need to beautify the world with a smile, a touch, or a listening ear to someone who is hurting. Last year I stumbled upon and dug deep into a particular Bible verse. This verse, Mathew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth,” has grown to be my all time favorite verse. I strive to live like this verse while growing closer to God.
I never think I add enough flavor. At times I feel I have nothing to offer to others, but then again I ponder over my life. With all the blessings I have, experiences I have encountered, and people in my life, I do have my life to share. Everything in my life adds to the flavor I can sprinkle on others. My love and deep passion for Christ can be shown by witnessing or through my actions. The family that has significance to me is evident as I talk about them a lot. Agriculture is where most of my experiences have developed as I have learned tremendously through work. Through these three encounters of faith, family and agriculture, my saltshaker is full of salt. It is through these things that I can shake the salt onto others. I can utilize what has been blessed to me and shower those on my surroundings.
Developing a picture as a self-portrait was not as difficult as I was expecting. Since I knew exactly what was significant in my life, I mimicked my portrait off my priorities. Faith, family and agriculture are the three most important factors in my life. My life which includes faith, family and agriculture are bottled up into a saltshaker. I utilize my life to shake flavor to the world.
Faith, what would I do without it? I know I could not be the person I am today without my faith in God. God loved me so much that he sent his only begotten son, Jesus, to die for my sins so that I may not perish, but live in eternity. Being a Christian is so comforting since I know I will be in heaven someday. I am so thankful that I have had parents that shown me Christ and the way to live. When I was young, I decided to have a faith of my own and take Christ as my Savior. I strive to be in the image of Christ and portray Christian values in everyday life. When I am at Purdue, I attend KossuthBaptistChurch, which is a true blessing. I have become active in Campus House and Bible studies throughout the week. Since the beginning of the fall semester, I have grown tremendously in my walk with God. I live at Stewart Cooperative, which is a Christian house full of thirty girls. Stewart is one of the best things that have happened to me because living there is very encouraging as a growing believer.
Family understands, cares, listens, supports, helps and most importantly loves. My family and I are very close as we share everything to each other. It always amazes people how tight and lovable we are towards one another. Most people have asked me how we get along so well. There are eight people in my immediate family including my parents, Richard and Carol. Brad, Ryan, Kyle, Kent consist of my brothers and Lori is my sister. It is hard to explain all the reasons I love my family as much as I do. The fact that I can go to them in any situation and they will totally be supportive is such an awesome feeling. Since my family knows who I am and what I am involved with, it is so nice to talk with them. Picking a favorite family member is not an option since each one means something special. I have different connections and memories with each one. Often I think of various memories and begin cracking up. I definitely treasure the moments that I have spent with my family. Although we are farther apart in location, we are closer together in heart.
Agriculture has been a major part of my life since I live on a 3,000-acre family farm. Corn, soybeans, wheat and hay are the primary crops on our farm. Cattle are also in abundance as we raise them mainly for the meat and not as show animals. Asparagus is our specialty crop in which we grow fifteen acres. The asparagus definitely keeps me busy in the springtime as I work a lot with the vegetable. The garden is also an extensive project as we grow vegetables and fruits to feed the family including potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, pumpkins, strawberries and raspberries. Some of our products grown in the garden are sold as a road stand. The farm has instilled in me the passion of agriculture and desire to be an agricultural ambassador throughout my life. I feel I have already represented agriculture by the numerous organizations I have been involved with. Being a State Officer for the National FFA Organization definitely expanded my mind as I traveled over 30,000 miles last year. Completing ten years of 4-H has also been an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. Living on the farm and being active in agricultural clubs has encouraged to me to major in agricultural economics at Purdue.
Faith, family and agriculture summarize who I am very well. There is always more to a person than one can say, but truly only three major priorities cultivate my life. I want people to look at me as a true Christian, family member and agriculture ambassador. Of course I also want people to think of me as caring, loving, fun, compassionate, intelligent, and most importantly as a friend. My name actually means friend and knowing this fact motivates me to serve as a better friend than ever. I can serve as this friend by sharing my experiences through sprinkling salt.
I have to remember to live out my life as salt knowing salt is tiny, but can have a huge impact. It is essential to show my love for faith, family and agriculture to the world by being salt. I must not simply be a table decoration, but add flavor to the world.
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