Introduction: Erin Langdale

Hello! My name is Erin Langdale, and I am an Agricultural and Extension Education major at Penn State, meaning that hopefully in the not-so-far-away future, I’ll be teaching agriculture in a high-school, and sharing my passion for agriculture with my students. After all, high-school agricultural education is how I came to know and love this incredible industry.

This photo was taken at Blyde River Canyon in South Africa!

When I was a kid, it was my DREAM to to travel. In my mind, I had always pictured myself flying to large European cities. Seeing the London Eye,  The Eiffel Tower, roaming around Rome, and so on. I grew up watching movies of these places and knew that one day I’d travel to them. When I think back on it, it almost shocks me how relatively small my world-view was, and how I’d only ever considered going to these more famous, cities. I guess that’s just how traveling changes your perspective.

About a year and a half ago, I was presented with the opportunity to travel to South Africa with the National FFA Organization as a part of  the International Leadership Seminar for State Officers. When the location was announced, it hit me that South Africa was not even in consideration for places I thought I might travel someday, but in a way, that made me more curious, and interested in going. I jumped in, and decided to go and it was honestly one of the greatest life experiences I have ever had.

Not going to lie, before I went, I knew next to nothing about South Africa, and in a way, it’s similar to how I know almost nothing about Belize. But just like the process of heading to South Africa, that fact that Belize is never really a place I had considered, draws more interest to me.

The reason why I want to travel to Belize is to feel as if I am learning something completely new, for the first time, all over again. When I traveled, I realized how little I actually knew, and I got to actually experience the differences in cultures, traditions, and norms of South Africa. When I got home, I craved that newness of information, and knew that maybe I wasn’t called to travel to the places I dreamed of as a kid, but it was the places I didn’t know about that I would grow more from. I am excited to see the growth that will happen on this trip. The growth of knowledge, history, culture, understanding, and so much more. I am excited to see Agricultural Education in a completely new way. And finally, I am excited to overuse every single Belize pun out there, because that’s just the person I am. I can’t wait for the adventure ahead! I can’t BELIZE it’s actually happening!