The sad news came out today that one of my high school ag teachers passed this morning after a battle with cancer. Mr. Scott Fields touched many lives over his many years, including mine. I found out only a couple weeks ago that he was fighting cancer, so it was a shock to find out that it had taken him so quickly. I found out today that he'd been fighting the cancer since 2010. While we are sad at the loss of such a great mentor, we can find solitude in the fact that he is no longer in pain, and he is with the Lord.
When I think back on my memories of Mr. Fields, so many different ones come to mind - even some that should be left unsaid! For those who knew him, they remember the energy that he had about him. He was always busy with something, his desk was ALWAYS a mess, and he never stopped moving. He never hesitated to throw a workbook, or a chair for that matter, across the room out of frustration. We all know that each of us gave him plenty to be frustrated about! At the same time, he would be there for any student, no matter the situation. He wrote me a multitude of recommendation letters when I was applying for college and scholarships. He's the reason that I went into college with plans to teach high school agriculture. He plainly told me, "You don't want to teach ag! Do you want to do something where you have to work all of the time and get paid squat!??" Well, those were close to his real words...that I am sure! I can remember asking him if he liked his job. In reply, he told me that he didn't like it...he loved it, but he'd never recommend it. That was him...honest to a fault!
When I started ag, my freshman year, I can remember meeting Mr. Fields and Mr. Usener, his teaching partner, for the first time. I'd heard the horror stories already. Mr. Usener didn't like girls in ag, but Mr. Fields seemed to believe in giving everyone a fair chance. When we started doing judging contests, I tried my hardest, but I never did that great. Our sophmore year, we lost Mr. Usener early in the school year, and Mr. Fields took on more than any one man should ever have to. I believe it was a week or two after losing Mr. Usener, Mr. Fields called my house late one evening. My mom had answered, and he had asked to speak to me. She handed me the phone and told me who it was. I remember thinking, "What could he want from me?" On the other end, in that tone that he had, he quickly asked me, "Would you be interested in going to the Land Judging contest this weekend?" Of course, I said sure, and from then on, I was always treated with respect in his ag program. I may have never been the best at any of the judging teams I was placed on, but I was "dependable", and I think that is always what he needed from his students. And that is was he always was to us!
Teachers have to be there for their students. Well, that is what should be, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. Mr. Fields was always there for me, though, and for that I will always be grateful. My senior year, I was showing in my last stockshow ever. It was the San Antonio stockshow, and my pig was awesome! Cody Stone, the 4-H agent at the time, was confident that my pig was capable of winning the show. I, knowing how much work I had put into this project, was excited about this! I can still remember, to this day, how it all went down. The first job of our ag teachers was to double check all of our pigs with their validation papers. When they came to my pig, there was a problem. One of the ear notches had not been recorded correctly when my pig was validated. This was something I should have double checked at validation, but I didn't. The other ag teacher said he would take care of it, and told me not to worry about a thing. The next day, as I walked my pig into the show ring, the judge took one look and sent me to a holding pen. Mr. Fields and Cody were quick to my side with excitement. The ring-men came along to check the validation paperwork on each penned pig, and mine, of course, wasn't correct. I was sent back to another holding pen along with another little girl who's pig was missing a tag all together. Mr. Fields and Cody followed me, and they stood by me as the ring-man told me that they would have to send my pig to "the trailer." Mr. Fields filled with anger while trying to take responsibility for the mistake, my mistake. He begged and pleaded to the ring-man to let me show my pig. He told him that this was my last show of my senior year, but it didn't matter. The ring-man replied, "I already let that other girl's pig back in without a tag. I can't let two in with problems!" I was devastated, and so were Mr. Fields and Cody. As I exited the ring to the trailer, I was told that the judge pulled the ring-man aside, pointed at me, and asked why I was being sent away. I can only wonder what kind of success my hard work would have provided me that day, but I never had to wonder if my ag teacher had my best interests in mind. They were as heartbroken as I was that day. Mr. Fields apologized to me over and over for not making sure the validation was fixed the day before. I told him that I knew it wasn't his fault - it was just a hard lesson learned. Mr. Fields told me, some years later, when I was home from college taking in the local stockshow, that he continued to use me as an example every year at validation time! I'd like to think that I had impacted his life, that year, as much as he'd impacted mine!
I could sit here all day and write about all of the great things I remember about Mr. Fields. I can tell you about him driving like a maniac in school vehicles, off-roading in the caravan during land judging, and slamming on the brakes of the bus for "brake checks." I can tell you about him calling the last motel available in Stephenville after our other hotel reservations got screwed up and threatening the motel owner/manager to bring 20 high school students to sleep on the floor of his lobby if he didn't give us rooms for the night. Trust me, we would have rather slept on the bus than in this motel, but he made sure we had a place to stay! I can tell you how he always let us leave campus to go get donuts in the morning - as long as we brought him some! There are so many memories in my mind, and I know there are many more from his other students, too!
Mr. Fields wasn't always perfect, and he probably could have never passed a teacher evaluation if they knew what really went on in his classes. But, he was one of the most inspirational teachers I ever had. He was the reason I didn't completely hate high school, and that is saying a lot! Mr. Fields, I hope you know how very much you meant to me, and I hope you know how many lives you touched in your many years on this earth! You will be greatly missed, but we will carry all of these cherished memories with us until the end of time!
Love and blessings,
Jessie
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