by Lisa Kucharski

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. No matter how hard I tried to roll away, my interests have the same roots as my mom’s. I grew up thinking that I wanted to be a veterinarian. Nothing could change my mind. I’d always been an animal lover and I just knew that someday I would have my own practice and be driving around in an old Chevy truck answering farm calls. But then, somewhere along the line while searching for colleges, I changed my mind. Grant it, I’m still going to be taking Equine Science classes, but guess what major I ended up choosing? Yep. I will be studying Communications with an emphasis in Journalism.

So I guess the old saying is true. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I was closer to the tree than I thought. It all started when I was very little. In fact, it started before I was even born. I’ve been riding horses since I was in the womb and lately I have been riding more than ever. I definitely inherited the “Horse Lover” gene. My mom, Sandy Kucharski, has owned horses for her entire life. She’s told me so many stories about her ponies Shoshone and Sunshine, how she upgraded to horses, the time she sold one of her four-legged friends for a wheeled form of transportation, and her one of a kind horse that she showed in 4-H that was also her best friend, Red.

I began to notice many uncanny coincidences. I started off my equine adventures with my two ponies Dolly and Sally, just like Mom’s ponies. Later on I got my first horse Bixie. A few more were added in between including a rambunctious five year old POA, who would later become the best show pony and friend I could ever have.

When I turned sixteen, my parents thought they would be funny and told me there was a surprise in the garage. Opening the door, I waited in anticipation. The lights were turned on, and there was a …cart. They got me a horse cart instead of a car. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I had trained one of my horses, sold her to a very nice couple, and bought my own car. These stories keep getting more and more similar. Sometimes I swear that I directly inherited a piece of my mom’s brain because sometimes when she helps me with a speech or a paper, we think of the exact same sentence at the same time. It’s a little frightening.

Adding another chapter to my story about going to college for Journalism, I found that once again it is lining up with my mom’s. However, while my mom found an in-state university to study at, I did fall a little further from the tree in this respect. As it was mentioned in the last issue of “Lead Lines,” I will be heading off to Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.

The fun part that I am looking forward to is meeting new people, experiencing a new life style, running on the track team and hopefully I can have my horse join me soon. Mom won’t let me take my pony because he’s her little buddy, but my 5 year-old Buckskin, “Case,” might tag along for the 6 hour drive.

There is a Carrie Underwood song called, “Don’t Forget to Remember Me.” It is about a girl going off to college. There is a verse in the song that says, “And just like every Sunday, I called Momma up last night…” and my mom said once, “You are going to talk to me more than once a week, right?” And I told her, “Of course. That’s why you have facebook!” But of course I was kidding. And yes, I will call her more than once.

I am very excited to be starting school in August, but I’m sure there will be a lot that I will miss here. Plus, I won’t be able to come home very often because of the distance. Yes, this apple rolled a little further away than Mom had planned on, but in regards to being like her, I’m basically at the base of the tree.