New Year, Still You

30… 29… 28… The days of summer are ticking down one by one, and the new school year is growing even closer. “School” seems like a forbidden word that isn’t supposed to be spoken during the months of June or July. The back to school ads are beginning, your mom is making you read more books, and an inner sense of panic is starting to settle inside you. You suddenly realize you don’t really want to wake up before 7 A.M. every day just to make the bus on time, you don’t want to sit through eight hours of class after class, and you really don’t want to lose your nice summer tan sitting under the glow of artificial light in a stuffy classroom.

However, the inevitable is coming whether we like it or not…. the much-dreaded beginning of the school year. Now I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if we’re honest, this is a reality that we all have faced at some point in our lives. Let me tell you, I’ve definitely been in your shoes more than once. My case of “new school year blues” was especially bad last summer. It was my last summer as a high schooler, and I was determined to fit in every summer activity I possibly could. I had made plans with all of my closest friends, and we knew it was going to be the best summer of our lives.

When the summer was over, I couldn’t believe it was time to start my senior year of high school. Where had all the time gone? I found myself asking the same questions I had when I was starting my freshman year of high school: Who would I sit with at lunch? Would I like my classes? What if I didn’t make homecoming court? As the first day of school came closer, I took some time to reflect on how much I had changed from the first day of my freshman year to the very moment I was in right now. My hobbies were different, my group of friends had changed, and I didn’t play the same sports. How could one person have changed so much in just three short years?

Entering the main doors on the first day of my senior year, I was still asking myself the same question. As the first couple of weeks of school came and went, I noticed I sat with new friends and made bonds with different teachers. In the back of my mind, I knew homecoming was on its way. I had been selected my freshman year as my grade’s attendant, and I desperately hoped I would be chosen for the senior homecoming court. As the voting got closer, I started to gravitate towards different friends than what I had at the beginning of the year. I was trying to alter who I really was in order for my peers to like me. Trust me, I wasn’t enjoying myself in the desperate struggle of wanting to be on the homecoming court.

Finally, the voting had finished, and I eagerly awaited to hear the results. Name after name was announced as I was sitting on the edge of my seat. Finally, the last name was announced… and my heart sank as I heard it wasn’t mine. I hadn’t made senior homecoming court, even though I tried so hard to be someone that everyone would like. I suddenly felt absolutely awful for pretending to be a person that I didn’t even recognize. I tried to be that freshman version of myself that was still interested in the same things, yet it didn’t get me elected. The desperation of wanting to be gratified by my peers consumed who I truly was.

The author Matthew Kelly stated in one of his books, “We become like our friends. No man becomes great on his own. No woman becomes great on her own. The people around them help to make them great.” After coming to this realization, I knew that I didn’t have to pretend to be someone else to make other people happy. I knew that the friends I surrounded myself with at the beginning of the school year helped make me a better version of myself, a version that didn’t have to be a homecoming queen to be worthy of their friendship. Those were the true friends that helped me build my own confidence within myself.

I challenge you this school year to surround yourself with friends that will make you the best you that you can be. Life is so much sweeter and with true and genuine friendships that help build you up, not tear you down because you aren’t who they want you to be. Forget about the popularity contests that consume our selfish nature, and turn your efforts to celebrate the qualities of our friends and teachers that strive to make us better. If I would have clung tightly to those friends that didn’t want me to change, I would have felt so much more fulfilled and happy. As the school year gets closer and closer, we have to remember who we are, not who everyone wants us to be. When we recognize and appreciate our true selves, our potential in day to day life will be much greater than we ever imagined. Be yourself, love your friends, and make this your best school year yet!

Cassie Bond

South Central State Vice President

Choosing to Live Consciously

Oprah Winfrey once said, “Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.” In life, it is easy to let time slip away from us as we hustle from one activity to the next; life so easily can become a blur. We forget that there is an evident difference between being present and participating full-heartedly in the activities we do, work we finish, and relationships we build.  

My entire high school career was like this: a blur. Some might say that time flies when you’re having fun, which I would like to believe is true; however, fun meant constantly rushing from one activity to another.  I never was truly focused on what I was doing, and although it’s hard for me to admit, I was not giving my best to everyone around me.

I would often come home from events and wonder, what just happened? How was the event I anticipated for weeks, months, or even years already over and I barely remembered it, let alone enjoyed it? Often, the answer can be found in Oprah’s quote. I was not aware of each moment and I was not living consciously. Instead, I was going through the motions, not participating full-heartedly in whatever had come my way.

For example, the football games I cheered, marched, and danced at on Friday nights came and went just like a lot of other events. Although now looking back, a couple things stuck with me from those Friday nights:

1.    The muscle memory of every cheerleading cheer, marching band performance, and dance routine I have ever done.

2.    The realization that if I had participated with a full heart in these events I would have a lot more to remember than the cheers, performances, and routines I had done.

Sometimes we become so wrapped up in what we are doing we often forget the purpose in which we are actually doing them. For me, I forgot why I first became a cheerleader, band member, and dancer. I forgot how much FUN these activities were!  

With that said, I challenge all of you to not just go through the motions but to participate with a full heart in everything you do. Give 110%, be passionate about what you are doing and don’t forget why you are doing it in the first place. The fun you are having is in the now, but the memories you are creating will last a lifetime.

I believe Coach Eric Taylor said it best in the hit TV series Friday Night Lights, “Clear eyes, FULL HEARTS, can’t lose.” If we focus on the now and participate with a full heart, giving everything and everyone our best, WE WILL win every time!

Rachel Zumbach

Northeast State Vice-President

Rolling Hills

I’m sure we have all heard the famous phrase “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”  I agree with this phrase to a certain extent, but I like to view life as a journey of highs and lows.  We all have adventures in our life that are like a never-ending scene of rolling hills. 

This past June I realized what journeys are truly like in life.  We all have those moments where we are the center of attention, where we get everything we want, and where life is, well, just plain great.  As cliché as it may sound the last two months of high school were the best.  I went to the nation’s capital for the second time in my life, met the governor for my academic excellence, received several scholarships, was named valedictorian of my class, and was elected to serve the Iowa FFA Association.  After all these milestones had been reached in my life I felt a sense of pride… I felt good about myself.  It’s truly a hard feeling to describe, but I happily continued on with life. Although I felt on top of the world, my time on top of the hill was about to come to an end. 

The beginning of June rolled around and I was gone from my small hometown a lot doing what I loved.  I was traveling the state meeting new FFA members, learning their stories and sharing mine.  I loved it.  I got home after COLT, caught up on sleep, did my laundry, and asked some of my friends if they wanted to hang out that night.  Not a single one replied.  Some of my closest friends from high school had forgotten about me.  I’d see them in public and they’d ask why I was home.  My days got pretty boring back home.  My friends from high school plain and simple didn’t care about my accomplishments that had happened two months ago.  I lost a lot of relationships with my friends that I had poured my life into creating.

I was on top of the hill back in April and May It was the best time of my life. I woke up every morning with a smile on my face. That smile slowly faded away after I spent a quick few days in June rolling down the hill to the low point.  It was the best time of my life. I reached this low point in the middle of the month after I returned home from COLT week. It was hard for me to fall asleep at night and exert energy into hobbies I had cared about my whole life.  I felt like I was in the slump of all slumps.  After I climbed out of the low point I realized something: life is an emotional rollercoaster.  It’s like taking a journey among endless rolling hills. We have our highs and our lows.  It’s just as plain and simple as that.  There’s no guarantee as to how long your lows and highs will last.  When you are having a high point in life enjoy it, but don’t let your guard down.  I’m not saying you need to be cautious of entering that “low,” it’s bound to happen, it’s part of life.  Just make sure you’re prepared in case it does happen because I was definitely not prepared at all.

One thing I did was to try and equal my highs and lows out.  I did this by reflecting back on the experience that caused the low, looked at my present life, and then looked towards the future.  As my dad always said look at the future last, because you can’t see what’s ahead of you if you’re looking in the rear view mirror your whole life.

Caleb Finnegan

Southwest State Vice-President

Count Your Blessings

Although Instagram’s feed no longer appears in chronological order (are they ever going to change that, by the way?!), I still find myself scrolling through it on a fairly regular basis, and I always get to see a wide variety of posts whenever I open the app. While it’s fun to see what friends and family are up to, or photos of events and news from organizations like National FFA, Instagram does have its downfalls. After double-tapping countless pictures of dream vacations, perfect outfits, and pretty Starbucks drinks, it doesn’t take long before your timeline has reminded you of all the things you wish you had.

            Sometimes, it’s hard not to get caught up in worrying about all the things we don’t have, and summer is an especially tough time. Between seeing posts on social media about what other people are doing and being busy with our own activities and responsibilities, it’s often difficult to remember to slow down and appreciate all the good things in our lives.

            This is something that I struggle with as well. Trying to balance everything I need to get done, and all the things I want to do means my summers often become a (somewhat overwhelming) blur. When we are caught up in the hustle of this time of year, we sometimes forget to take a minute and remember how blessed we really are. It’s no secret that most of us have goals, things we are continuously striving to achieve. This ambition is great, but it’s also important to look at everything we’ve already accomplished. This drive to succeed will take us far, but so will having the ability to appreciate the beauty of our current situations.

            This is where the phrase, “count your blessings,” comes in handy. Whether we are feeling disappointed by the fact that we aren’t having the insta-worthy summer on the lake that our classmate is, or we are too worried about what we want to do or have next, sometimes we need to simply pause for a second to acknowledge all the reasons we have to be happy. The best way to make it through a negative or stressful situation is to find the positives. This tweet from Kid President sums it up pretty well:

            If we can simply count our blessings and keep our focus on “the awesome,” we will realize that there’s always something to be grateful for. For example, having lots of “thank-you” cards to write from my high school graduation, while time-consuming, means that I have loving, caring friends and family who helped me celebrate this milestone in my life. I have a giant, lovely, purple bruise on my leg from being kicked by a calf, but this is because I have the amazing opportunity to raise livestock and be involved in the agricultural industry. I have a roof over my head, a supportive family, three cute dogs, and a blue corduroy jacket hanging in my closet. Counting my blessings always reminds me that I have so many reasons to be thankful, and I challenge each of you to do the same, because “the awesome” is always there.

Peyton Schmitt

 State Secretary