It's really funny how much one thing can mean to a person. It could be an inanimate object such as a blanket, and animate object like a dog, or not even an object at all but rather an organization. For those of you who didn't know, this week
is National FFA Week. This is a week when FFA members and advisors all across the country celebrate this amazing organization with various activities at their schools. For instance some activities we did when I was an officer is our annual donut eating contest one day during lunch, wearing official dress to school on Friday, or my personal favorite getting up at four in the morning to cook the faculty and staff of my high school breakfast one day. No matter what activities we were doing we always had a blast. Now that I am out of high school and no longer get to do all those fun activities with my home chapter I have found myself looking back and recalling some of my favorite times, and I realized yet again what difference FFA has made in my life.
Being a high school student is hard without any added trials. I was a freshman in high school as well as a kid smack dab in the middle of a messy divorce. I lived in a semi-small town and as you can guess the divorce my parents were going through was a public ordeal. I lost a place to keep my SAE project (sheep) and my horse. I was so angry at my now ex-stepfather and at the world. The only place I felt that I could escape all of it was my advisors classrooms. When the bell to dismiss us from school at the end of each day rang I would bolt to the Ag classroom and find any excuse to not go home that I could; I dreaded going home. Going home meant that I had to comfort my crying mother, deal with the anger issues that my brothers and I had, and pick up the pieces that the divorce left scattered on the floor of our messy house. I was fourteen years old and dealing with demons that no kid at that age should have to deal with, but despite it all FFA and my advisors Bob Gowans and Jannette Shields stepped up and became my stability, my heroes, and my second set of parents. Don’t get me wrong my parents truly did all they could to help me and give me opportunities, one of which was supporting my FFA involvement no matter how expensive it was, but they also had to juggle work and emotional clean up. My advisors took me under their wing, they let me keep my sheep at their house, they would drive me 150 miles to get my sheep each year, they spent countless hours talking to me and helping me through my emotional issues, but most importantly they showed me that no matter what happens in life there will always be people around you to support you and lift you up. FFA took a young girl with a somewhat rough family life and gave her a safe haven, a passion, and a goal in life.There are tons of memories I have that involve me learning a life lesson but no matter how many I share I know you nor anyone else will realize just how much FFA does mean to me and to other people.
I want to end with this quote by Alicia Hodnik the 2011-2012 National FFA Central Region Vice President "FFA is the place where young travelers hop on a plane for the first time, iron their first pair of dress slacks, learn how to tie their first tie, make their first friend outside of their home town, and wear their first jacket that unites them with thousands, yet allows them to stand unique. It is a place where our closest friends can be our classmates as well as our agriculture teachers. A place where people believe in what we can do because our passion is our drive. FFA grows people and strengthens agriculture. It is a place where leaders have a hunger to better themselves, not for personal gain, but for the common-good of their fellow man. It is a place where humility is practiced and thought is provoked. It's a place where the tradition of blue corduroy and high morals have never gone out of style. Here’s to 85 years – Happy National FFA Week! Forever blue.”
I could not speak a truer statement then the that... Happy FFA Week Everyone!!
Jay
