The year was 2018. I was a brand new gardener and had zero experience growing, well, anything.
So naturally, I got online and joined a giant pumpkin forum. As I was browsing through the threads, I found out you can buy seeds from the biggest pumpkins in the country.
You meant *I* could grow a 2,000 lb monster for myself?! And for the low, price of $50?! SOLD!
I anxiously awaited my package, and in the meantime bought a bag of miracle grow and dumped it into a pile in a random spot in my garden.
I got on the Iowa State Fair website and sent in my registration form for the Big Pumpkin Contest. I wondered, “How will I lift my 2,000 lb pumpkin into the truck? Will we need a forklift? A crane?!”
The seed arrived in a Manila envelope in the mailbox. I carefully unpacked it and scraped the edges with sandpaper (so it would sprout faster, surely) and tucked it into the pile of dirt.
Then emerged a little plant! How promising, how wonderful! I was going to win this thing for SURE.
Then the first flowers appeared, and the first little, baby pumpkin! It grew very quickly. I checked on it several times a day, even in the dark.
August came, and so did the cucumber beetles… they nibbled holes that left scars across my beautiful pumpkin. The stress made growth slow and I soon realized… this was not a winner.
Just as the bugs crept in, so did my doubt. I even considered not showing up to the fair at all. But my wonderful husband, Ben, said, “NO! You made it this far, you are going to the fair!”
So he lifted my not-so-big pumpkin into the trunk of our Toyota Camry. We drove right up to the scale and unloaded.
I was nervous and shaking. iowapbs was there filming! Mike Naig, the Secretary of Agriculture was being interviewed right behind the scale.
Ben set her down and it was the moment of truth. The moment I had spent all summer thinking about… 84 lbs! 12th out of 13 entries.
That was only 6 lbs behind the guy ahead of me, and a whole 47 lbs ahead of last place!
The point is, even when I had lost all confidence and was afraid of looking silly in front of over one million state fair attendees, I had someone who supported my dreams and gave me the push I needed to follow through with my goal.
Thank you, Ben! P.S. after 10 years together, he still pushes me to follow my dreams.
I now proudly display my participant medal, and I never grew a giant pumpkin again.