Chickens, Science Fairs and Marriage

I was in the 9^th grade. Living out of town on 2 ½ acres afforded our family the opportunity to raise chickens. And raise chickens we did! We started with a handful from the local feed store in the spring. Then that handful produced another handful, and that handful doubled for us again. Pretty soon we had 30 chickens running free range around our yard, always climbing up the little ladder we had placed against the tree in the backyard to roost in the evenings. We loved our chickens like most people love their dogs. They had names (Silver the rooster--well named; and Stephanie the rooster--not as well named) and pecking order (Silver on top; Stephanie, not so much) and liked when we held them (Silver regally accepted love and adoration; Stephanie maybe hated us a little). And they had their own language.

As loving owners, we became adept at understanding all of the clucks and peeps and cock-a-doodle-doos our chickens made. So much so that when Mr. Tinguey, my 9^th grade science teacher, announced a science fair coming up, I thought a worthy project could be entitled “Chickens: Their ‘cheep’ talk”. I spent time with our little brood, recording their chatter and graphing out the different sounds and intonations they made. I made observations based on what sounds produced certain reactions. I noted who made what sounds when and who responded to those sounds. I took pictures and made a display. I was feeling like a new mini-expert on chicken communication.

 I entered the high school competition and to my surprise I won the zoology category, placed 2^nd overall and received the John Hammond award! (A prize total of $75 cash! Which to a 14 year old in 1997 seemed like a million bucks!) Because of my success and the unique content of my project the local newspaper interviewed me and put me on the front page. (Almost as cool as the $75!) I remember feeling like the reporter was so interested in my project; he really enjoyed listening to my methods and my findings. He treated me like the mini-expert I knew I was, like an adult doing serious research to benefit all of (chicken-owning) mankind. And then he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Without hesitation, and with more confidence that anything I had said about chickens, I said, “I want to be a wife and a mother.” If I had believed he cared about me up to that point, I was wrong. “Huh?” he said. “You know, a homemaker,” I replied, uncertain as to why he couldn’t understand what I said.

When the story ran on the front page it never mentioned my future ambitions. I was confused. I had given a very straightforward and honest answer. I remember asking my mom about it. We talked about how I probably surprised him. We concluded that the reporter must have thought that my project was so amazing, that I must have aspired to become nothing less than a world-renowned zoologist. For me to want nothing more than a happy husband and beautiful babies didn’t translate into the world of science and media. Dissapproval. That’s what I felt. However, did I walk away abashed, embarrassed and questioning my future plans? Not in the least. If anything, it steeled my resolution to thrive as wife and mother when I grew up.

That was my first experience standing up for marriage and family. And I have never waivered in my support of marriage and family since that day. Everyone wants to be known as “that one guy” for something in his or her life. I want to be “that one girl who loved love”. I hope people will say, “She really loved marriage!” If whispers behind my back can just sound like this, “She is just so positive about commitment between a man and woman!” If I can help even one person, or one couple, or one family try a little harder to be a little better, then my cause will be just. And if that one person, that one couple, that one family is my own—then I have lived a full and blessed life. I believe that every single person can believe in, work toward and one day obtain the happy marriage and happy family that dreams are made of. Sometimes that happily ever after doesn’t come on the first try, sometimes that happily ever after comes early on, but it takes readjustments and hard work to keep it alive. Sometimes that happily ever after doesn’t come when its most hoped for. But I know that it can and will come to all of us who actively seek for it and work at developing ourselves and our relationships. Because after all, I am the girl that loves marriage…I’ll crow that from any rooftop!