5. Life Lessons

As I have said before, the FFA Organization isn’t all about farmers, ranchers, etc. However, it does support the agriculture industry. As a former member I learned the importance of giving back to the community, giving back those less fortunate, and lending a helping hand whenever possible. As a kid, I remember my parents volunteering my siblings and I to go help my grandparents clean their fish

pond, help grandpa with his landscaping, or anything else they might need. My parents still do that today, they volunteer my brother and sister and I to go help out whenever we can. As a kid I hated that, who wants to go help with a landscaping project on a hot summer day? Not this girl. Or help dad build fence for my horses, I mean, they’re my horses but building fence was not my cup of tea.

As I got older and started my FFA career I realized my advisor started volunteering members to go help out in the community or around school. That was when I realized the character traits and qualities my advisor and my parents were trying to instill in us. They weren’t volunteering us to do all of these things to be mean, they were doing it to teach us that helping others and giving back to the people in need is more important than focusing on ourselves. I can’t count the number of times my grandparents have come to watch and support me, from birthday dinners, market lamb shows, National Honors Society banquets, graduation, to coming to see a new horse my parents bought me, my grandparents have done it all. Giving back to those who have bent over backwards for me is something I should want to do, not be forced to do, that what my parents wanted me to learn.

When I finally realized the lesson my parents and my advisor were trying to teach me it put all of those little tasks in a new perspective. Being an FFA member means, lending a helping hand, being respectful, working hard, being a leader, and doing what is right even when no one is watching. Being a good citizen requires all those things as well. My advisor was teaching me many life lessons about being a good FFA member and a strong leader. My parents were doing the same thing but teaching me to be a good person who can stand on my own two feet. My parents expected a lot of us kids when we were growing up, I’m sure I thought they were being mean somewhere along the lines but the reality of it is, they were teaching me that there are more important things in life than what is going on inside of my little world.

Now that I am older and a college student living on my own I 

completely understand why my advisor and my parents held

me to such a high standard and had high expectations for me. All of my achievements and character traits that I now have, help me in life every day and all of those traits came from my parents, grandparents, and my advisor, making me do things I did not always want to do. If you don’t want to be a farmer or a rancher that’s fine, but being a good citizen is something we should all work towards and FFA will help you do that. Being a good FFA member and citizen is about leadership, it's not a position or a title, it's an action and an example.