A Big Yeehaw Girl

Senior FFA Officers 2019

Oh, if only you knew the irony of the reason why I am a Social Media Management major.

As a freshman in high school, I was your typical

“I love my dogs more than anything in the world! I want to be a vet when I grow up!”

This was my first mistake. At Wilson Central, to take the veterinary classes when you were a sophomore, you had to take an agriculture class your freshman year. I had NO room being in agriculture living in a suburb, never having worked on a farm, or even cared for a goat other than at the petting zoo.

Being in an agriculture class meant you were automatically enrolled to be a Future Farmer of America.

Welcome to FFA.

Most of you who are reading this were not in FFA and probably know nothing about it so let me give you a little insight into how I got suckered into three years. Not only was I active in this organization, but I also held officer positions and became a national member after I graduated.

The first month of this class focused on learning the meaning behind the FFA Creed and then memorizing it to recite to our teacher. The FFA Creed is a five-paragraph statement where each section begins with “I believe.”

Now CURSE ME for being able to memorize stuff with ease and having a semi-decent speaking voice at 14 years old, because after reciting this creed to my teacher, he suggested that I compete in the FFA competition coming up. I was paired with five other FFA members to participate in a competition where we had to research the pros and cons of an agricultural issue and present our conclusions to a panel of judges.

Long story short . . . our group won districts and regionals. We were one of four teams that would compete at the state competition in Gatlinburg.

We got third in the state.

Regardless, I now felt inclined to keep submerging myself in various FFA competitions such as dairy judging (eating cheese, not showing cows), another couple years of performing skits, tried my hand at parliamentary procedure, and many more.

If you knew me in high school, you would never guess I was SO involved in my chapter.

This brings me to my TRUE love . . . social media management.

In my senior year, I was given the title of “the reporter.” My job consisted of taking pictures at chapter events, creating posters for things we were hosting, and managing our Instagram and Facebook.

So maybe FFA was not my calling. I did not want to become a vet. I did not want to go to college to study agriculture-related things.

Now, I do not like math. Don’t get it twisted. However, during the year I ran the social media accounts for my FFA chapter, I loved seeing the accounts grow, whether it was gaining more likes or seeing how much interaction I was gaining on the stories I would post. Seeing my statistics grow every day put such a smile on my face (so much so I forgot I always smelt like pig or goat poop).

Moral of the story:

I may have not been able to accept any of the agriculture scholarships I was offered, but FFA kind of led me to my passion. And I’ll thank it for that.

But for right now, I still have a year until I graduate. . . don’t ask me what I want to do yet. That’s another conversation for another day.