In connection to the article "12 Things Only FFA Members Will Understand" I will use comments from actual FFA members. Through FFA, members encounter many things. They make new friends, travel across the country, and make memories they never will forget. So here are some of FFA members favorite memories:
1. Getting together with districts/regions
Hanging out with your chapter is awesome, but hanging with your region or district is so fun. You meet people close to home yet have a different school, area, and different experiences.
2. Meeting people from other states
WLC or Washington Leadership Conference is an awesome place to meet people from all over the country. You make friends and keep in touch whether its pen pals or texting.
3. Career Development Events
While they may become a huge part of our lives and take up a lot of time. Most of the most memorable moments take place on the way to a CDE or the fun you had while competing.
4. Being an officer
As you can see holding an office is a wonderful part of the FFA experience. Whether its chapter or national, your officer team becomes some of your closet friends. After all the long rides to competitions and officer retreats you get really close to them and you wouldn't trade the awkward FFAmily for anything.
5. The Sea of Blue
Seeing the sea of 60,000 blue jackets walking the streets of Indy, can be overwhelming. When you are in your own school and see a couple of people in an FFA shirt you get the feeling your not alone. But when you see that it is a national phenomenon it changes your perspective, to that you are a part of something much bigger.
6. Exerting an influence
Whether you want to be an Ag teacher or another field in agriculture, you want to exert and influence in your home and community. This up and coming generation is lacking on information about where there food comes from. We need to change that. But when you teach someone something they didn't know about Ag or if you tell a kid about where there food comes from it makes you feel like you made a difference.
7. Building friendships
Through FFA I have made so many friends, and I actually got to meet some at national convention. But through this amazing organization you meet so many people who share a common interest in agriculture and leadership. Excited doesn't even begin to describe how you feel when you receive a letter from your pen pal from across the country.
8. Using your time wisely
FFA is a student organization, which means the student comes first. Most FFA members focus on school and aim for amazing grades. Other then doing their homework and studying most FFA members compete in CDE's. Hard work pays off. It doesn't matter if you win the competition but you learned something from the experience.
9. The support from your fellow members
The support from brothers and sisters in blue and gold is astonishing. It might be a huge life decision or deciding to run for a state officer position, they will be right beside you motivating you the whole way. The classic team building exercise trust fall is a perfect metaphor for FFA members. If you ever feel like your falling you have 600,000 plus members ready to catch you whenever you fall.
10. Friends make everything awesome
Previously stated in other points you make so many friends through FFA. But some eventually become closer than others and end up staying in your life forever. You might be staying up to 3 am just talking about life or you might be giving advice on how to talk to a guy and fall into an air conditioner. Either way friends make everything better, even an awesome organization like FFA,
Thank you, FFA for all these memories and thousands more that we'll appreciate for years to come. Thank you for the lessons you taught us. Thank you for the opportunities that have been presented. Thank you for helping us believe in a faith born not of words but of deeds. Thank you for making us the future leaders of the nation. Thank you for teaching us agriculture. Thank you for shaping the future of agriculture.
Thank you to the blue and the gold.
