Personal Narrative: My Experience With FFA

Since the day I was born into my outrageous family, I have always been the youngest child; always told what to do and I could never be in charge of anything other than myself. Growing up with my older sister and cousins that have been in 4-H and FFA have set the bar high for me, but it's a challenge I accepted. I have been in 4-H for 9 years and will be completing my 4th year of FFA. I have held many offices in my local 4-H club (Spring Creek Lively Steppers) which include Game leader, song leader, reporter, and historian. Through my years of holding these offices I have learned valuable lessons that I couldn't have learned without them. When growing up I used to be extremely shy and quiet, often having my older siblings to speak for me. This caused me to be a very poor public speaker.

Because, my parents expected me to give demonstrations at my 4-H meetings, I reluctantly developed the ability to speak in front of people.

By performing a variety of demonstrations,(Parts of an Air Rifle, The Different cuts of meat from a lamb, The different Position of a baseball diamond, and How to make lamb kabobs), I learned to talk confidently in front of people on a variety of subjects. This also helped to prepare me for the Public speaking that is involved with FFA. Thanks to That, I recently was able to give a six minute speech with confidence and poise. From the moment I was born into a show family, I was bound to learn a few things earlier in life than most. Like how to avoid the dreaded valley of death or how to lose and win with grace and poise. When raising livestock, I have had my shares of joys, from naming my first lamb, all the way to winning at the North American International livestock expedition. I have also had my concerns in which I learned about the circle of life a lot earlier than most. Without raising livestock I would have the responsibility to take care of other living things. Through it all I have learned to be patient, caring and

understanding,
all traits a great leader should posses. When raising lambs to show at the fair I have had to halter break them and this takes a lot of patience, as they will fight and fight to try and get it of, but eventually they will get used to it. Just like helping others, they won't just learn it right away it takes time and practice. Winning doesn't always happen because everyday is a different day and people have different ideas on what type of lambs they like. So, it comes to winning I have learned to be humble because, I always think about how I would feel if the winner waved their trophy around and started saying you suck (I know it might sound cliche but I have seen it happen). When I lose I just bite my lip, congratulate the winner, and just think, tomorrows a different day and maybe tomorrow I will win. Through FFA and 4-H I have won countless classes showing lambs all over the country so i know how it feels to win and lose. FFA has also taught me to keep everything organized so that when filling out scholarships such as this I can have everything I have achieved in my life on record to look back on it in the future. I learned this skill while competing my record for Proficiency awards and for filling out my state FFA degree.