Maybe your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter is in their first year of college. Maybe it’s even you. Perhaps the bloom is fading on the college rose.

Why? Because it’s a transition to real life, and real life is tough. When harvest heats up and fall club calf sales kick in, other places besides a college campus may seem appealing to passionate farm kids.

Here’s a bit of advice from a couple of people who have “been there, done that.” Give college a chance.

True motivation

Steve Hudson’s grandfather retired from dairying but built a small feed elevator. He expected his grandson to help, and he gladly obliged — until he figured out how frightening it could be climbing up a shaky grain leg or how unpleasant it could be cleaning the grain dump pit.

“That elevator turned out to be my motivation to get through my first year of college,” Hudson says.

OK, explain that one. Yes, even if you like agriculture, there are parts that aren’t glamorous, and sometimes when pining for home, we forget them.

“No, that’s the point, I didn’t forget,” Hudson says. “The alarm would go off in November for a 7:30 a.m. class. I would look out, see it raining and the wind blowing, and my first reaction was to pull up the covers.

“Then, I thought, ‘No, if I skip too many classes, I will end up back at that elevator, and I’m not doing that my whole life.’ I got up and went to class every time!”

Firsthand experience

If you know of a young person wishing he or she could quit school and come home, tell them they’re not the first to feel that way. That was me. Being a farm kid who loved milking cows, not an athlete, I wasn’t exactly a socialite. OK, I was backward. No one in my family ever went to college. Mom said, “Go to college.” Our farm was too small to support me. I went to college.

From day one, I hated it — I wanted to be home. I lost 15 pounds in the first three weeks, and I didn’t have 15 pounds to lose back then! I went home every weekend. Going back every Sunday night got tougher. I thought I was failing. How did I know a 70 on a chemistry test curved into an A?

I didn’t like college life at all. Finally, one night in late fall, I called home, begging my mom to come get me. I would work at, yes, a local elevator. I would do anything to get out of Purdue.

Mom prayed with me and for me, cried with me and for me, but by the grace of God, she was smart enough not to come get me. If I had quit, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life. You wouldn’t be reading these words.

So, by second semester, was I loving school? No. But slowly I made friends, saw possibilities and wound up staying for two degrees. So, hang in there, young person. No, it may not be easy. It may be downright tough. But keep your options open. Give college and your future a chance.