Know Your Worth

Somewhere about four or five months ago, my teammate, Hailey, and I were sitting at the Enrichment Center during State Proficiency Judging enjoying our coffee and waiting for results to come in.  As a way to pass the time, we decided to join the popular trend amongst students and get some stickers to put on the outside of our laptop.  We probably spent more time on this than we should have and may have been overly excited for a couple small pieces of paper with adhesive on the back.  However, I’m still reminded of the many laughs shared every time I close my laptop and see my Green Bay Packers, South African flag, and owl stickers on the front cover.  As I closed my laptop last night, frustrated about writing this blog, one of the other stickers stuck out to me.  It says “Know your worth.”  Three simple words that really struck a chord with me the first time I saw the sticker, and did again last night.

            This past week, my fellow Iowa FFA officers and I made the trip to Ashland, Nebraska, where we worked on team development and really diving into what we wanted to accomplish this year as officers for the state association.  It was an incredibly invigorating, yet humbling week as I watched my teammates grow so much over the course of just a few days.  As we grew closer, it became even more evident that each of my teammates plays a crucial role in the success of the team.  They each have such unique personalities and traits, but yet work so incredibly well together.  As energized as I was throughout the week, I sometimes found myself thinking about what I had to offer to the team.  My teammates covered pretty much every spectrum of qualities that’s out there that I wasn’t quite sure if I exhibited anything different.  Through conversations with each of my teammates this week, they have made me realize that I do have worth in our team.  Even though my role may be being the “mom” of the group and simply sharing knowledge and giving advice, I have something to offer. 

Being on any sort of team can cause us to wonder where our strengths come into play.  It can get overwhelming as we think about whether or not we are contributing to the team as much as we think we should be.  But if there’s one thing I learned through my year serving as the Northeast State Vice President, it was that in order to be valuable to a team, we must first know how valuable we are.  Knowing your worth and the special combination of traits and qualities that you bring to your team is the first step in being the best teammate you can be.  It’s easy to see how incredible our teammates are, but it’s also okay to be a little selfish and know that you are just as rockin’ as they are. 

With only about half of summer left, we’ll all be back in school before we know it and a multitude of teams will join back together.  Whether it’s our chapter officer team, our football team, or even a group of friends planning an event for church, see the value you have and share that every day.  No matter how big or how diverse the group is, you bring a special mix of characteristics and strengths that no one else does and makes you incredibly valuable to the those you are serving with.  Even if you don’t have a daily reminder like one on the front of your laptop, always take time to see your value and know your worth.

Elisa Russ

Iowa FFA State President