When a golf tournament goes well, sophomore Camille Blair wishes her dad was there to celebrate. When she gets new animals at the FFA barns, she wishes he was there to see them.

“[I miss him the most] in the moments when you want to be like, ‘Hey, look what I did!’ and you can’t,” Blair said.

Blair’s father passed away while she was in eighth grade after a stroke caused swelling on the left side of his brain

Despite her father not being here anymore, his impact on her life is evident. He introduced her to golf and fueled her passion for FFA. She misses not only telling him about high school but also just spending time with him.

“If people were uncomfortable, he would figure out a way to make you comfortable,” Blair said. “He was really nice.”

One of the people who has helped her the most since his passing is her father’s friend Scott Goodell. Goodell helped Blair get back into golf.

“[My dad] took me golfing,” Blair said, “which is why I’m involved in that now.”

Though it was her mom who first encouraged her older brother to join FFA, Blair’s dad was the one who encouraged her to start showing sheep in fifth grade. Blair has continued to show lambs every year.

“He was like, ‘Hey Camille, here’s a lamb,’” Blair said. “[Showing lambs] is really fun for me.”

Blair’s connection with her dad hardly stops there. His health complications are one of Blair’s driving factors for choosing to work in the medical field. He used to have to inject shots, and he let Blair help measure out the medicine in the syringes. Her father had been hospitalized 12 different times, and Blair was always awed seeing the nurses in action.

“It was just watching them,” Blair said. “I thought, I just wanted to do what they did.”