Minnesota FFA,
Somehow a year has escaped us and my term has come to an end. Thank you to everyone who was celebrated the past year at convention and experienced the legacy of eighty years of Minnesota FFA. While each of us only hold this legacy for a little while, realize what you are doing in your blue jacket today will serve to strengthen this organization for generations to come.
I would like to thank everyone who made this year so special: all of the SGLC and SLCCL participants, Team Carlos, all eight teams of region officers, everyone who welcomed me into your chapter for visits and banquets, those of you who stopped me in the halls at convention or hugged me on stage, the foundation sponsors, the alumni members, state staff, and my teammates. Whether you realize it or not, you touched my life this year and I will never forget what you have done for me. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to represent Minnesota FFA and the agriculture industry over the past twelve months. It was an absolute honor and a privilege.
Below, that is after the gavel picture, you will find a manuscript of my RA (which is a little different than what I actually said but you get the idea!) for those of you who asked about it.
Please take a little time to reflect on where your blue jacket is taking you. I promise it can bring you anywhere you have ever wanted to go. Keep calling, emailing, and facebooking me, even if I am now old. I still will love to hear from all of you! Get to know the new team too, they are pretty awesome!
Wherever I end up in life, there will always be a blue jacket in my closet and this organization and all of its members and supporters in my heart. Thank you to all who made this the most incredible year of my life!!
- Your old has been 2008-2009 State Vice President
Katie Zenk
360 Degrees...
Once there was a man who dreamed of being famous and wealthy. He couldn’t act, his voice was definitely best in the shower, and believe me, he just wasn’t the model type, so he settled on one giant, odd master plan. He would figure out a way to catch the sun and hold it in his hands. He started by stretching and reaching for it. When that didn’t work, he jumped into the air. Then he got a ladder, and then a bigger ladder. He tried everything he could possibly think of and was almost ready to start drawing up plans for a rocket ship when a new idea came to him.
What if he wasn’t really holding the sun? What if he just made it look like he was?
He bought a camera and tripod and set it up in a deserted place. He waited for dusk, set the timer, and positioned his hands just right so when the picture was developed, it looked like he was holding the sun.
The image spread around the world and soon the man had not only the riches he had always dreamed of, but thousands of adoring fans. Spurred by his success, he decided to take another picture. He got out his camera and his tripod and went to a new place. He arranged his hands at just the right angle as before but as the shutter clicked, he realized something was different. He wasn’t alone. Groups of his fans had followed him. Those who stood in the front saw him exactly as he meant the picture to turn out. But the people who were behind him saw his confident form reaching toward the sun, but in his hands, they saw what he knew all along, that he was holding nothing.
(sitting) I’m four years old, sitting in ECFE class. I’m excited. The question of the day is “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I know exactly what I will say. I didn’t spend years with crayons, scissors, and glue for nothing. No, I knew what I wanted to be… an artist. We are sitting in a circle sharing our answers. First, one of the five ashleys in my class –
I want to be a ballerina.
Psh, an artist is way cooler than that.
Then Alicia, I want to be a ballerina too!
…weirdos..
Five more girls (most of them named Ashley) and five answers later, we had five more future ballerinas. Finally it was my turn.
When I grow up I want to be a… a… a.. somehow my mind quit working, I was panicking inside, maybe being an artist wasn’t so cool… finally I blurted out…a ballerina!
Evidently a ballerina was the thing to be, everyone else wanted to do it. Why not me too?
Let’s stop and think about how crazy this idea is. Me, a ballerina? I’m pretty sure the word “graceful” has never EVER been used to describe me. Heck, I put on flats just for this speech! But, I made myself look like I thought I was supposed, even though I knew it wasn’t what I wanted.
Fast forward a year. I’ve hit the big time – that’s right, Kindergarten. Growing up as an only child, walking into a classroom full of five year olds offered a whole new realm of friends, toys, and most importantly for me, chances to make people laugh. Now I was a fairly innocent kid, but one day I was sitting next to my friend Shane cutting out my latest construction paper masterpiece (since I was still going to be an artist). I can still remember his flaming red hair and runny nose. We always got along well, that is until I thought my classmates would find it hilarious if I gave his bowl-cut a little trim of my own. That’s right, safety scissor in hand, I cut his hair. In my five year old opinion, it didn’t look half bad, it was barely noticeable. Unfortunately for me, my teacher strongly disagreed. Since Shane didn’t mind and the other kids thought it was funny, I was spurred to try something else. I waited until Shane got up to sharpen his pencil and when he got back, I yanked his chair straight out from under him.
The only thing audible above the laughter of my classmates was my teacher… yelling… at me.
I was quickly whisked into the hallway. My less than pleased teacher roared down on me and said a lot of things... most of them very quickly and very angrily… but I must have got the point because I don’t think I have ever gotten in that much trouble again. The one thing that I do remember her saying was “Katie, you are usually such a nice girl, why can’t you be like that all of the time?”
I never had even considered the idea that I wasn’t being the same person all of the time.
In kindergarten, I wanted everyone to see me as the class clown, as someone hilariously funny. While some of them probably saw that, more probably saw me as being a jerk, at least on that day. My teacher recognized that I could be a “nice girl” and made me wonder why I couldn’t be like that all the time.
At four years old, sure my friends might have liked the idea of us starting a dance company together, but they only saw the front view, the me I thought they should see, the future ballerina. I didn’t let them see the me I truly was, the me that I saw, the potential artist.
It’s all like the man and the sun. On the surface, from the front, both he and I looked exactly like we wanted portray ourselves, but underneath, from a different angle, we just looked kind of sad, pathetic, and empty. Even while other people may have liked his picture or what I said or did, he knew his hands were empty and I knew that I wasn’t being myself, we knew that we weren’t holding anything.
So have you figured it out? That story and this speech aren’t about grabbing a flaming ball of gas. No, we’re talking about integrity… being who you say that you are, being the same person all the time, from every angle, from 360 degrees.
Integrity might be easy to fake from the front, but someone will always see the other side. No matter what people think, you will always know if you have integrity or not.
The title of this speech is 360 degrees and I hope some of you remember it as a way to remember to have integrity and look the same from every angle, but I know that most of you will probably forget it. So here’s a way that I bet you won’t forget. When girls…and sometimes boys… try on clothes, first they look at themselves in the mirror to see how they look from the front as that’s the view most people get of them. Then, they turn around and ask that one key question –
How does my butt look?
And that’s exactly what we are talking about here. We spend a lot of time worrying about what our face looks like, about how other people see us. We should be spending more time thinking about how that other side looks, the side that people don’t see too often, the part of our character where the sun doesn’t always shine.
I remember what it felt like the first time I put on OD, well maybe not the first time because the first time I thought I looked like a stewardess, but after about a year or so in the organization. Every time I put on my jacket, I got that feeling, you know the one I’m talking about, that feeling that with a zip of this jacket I am instantly a good person, instantly the best version of myself. I know you all understand what I am talking about, it’s the feeling of pride for toughing out hot corduroy on a sweaty ninety degree July day, it’s the excitement of pinning on your new greenhand or chapter degree to your jacket, or even finally attaching that chain, it’s the rush of nerves before reciting opening ceremonies at your chapter banquet, and it’s the feeling you get from looking around this room and knowing that you have at least one amazing thing in common with everyone here.
Because of over eighty years of hard work, strength, and dedication, over half a million members nationwide are proud to wear this jacket and instantly be recognized as “good people” just because of the ideals of our organization.
But here’s the thing. It’s not just about looking good.
I remember the first time I put on THIS jacket, my state officer jacket. Sure I was excited for the year to start, but as I pulled it on I couldn’t help but to think of all the state officers who had made a difference in my life. They were polished, they were talented, they were AWESOME! I was not that cool. How in the heck was I supposed to represent the 9000 members of our state? Sure I could pull on my OD and look the part but what about when I wasn’t wearing it. (Take Jacket Off)
See, what’s true for all of us is that this jacket cannot stand on its own. The passion, the dedication, the hard work that this jacket represents has to come from somewhere else, it has to come from deep within ourselves. Without each and every one of us living our lives up to the standards of this jacket, there is nothing to give our organization shape. Without the integrity of the person, the jacket just collapses. (drop jacket) That’s why it is important to be the same person out of this jacket as you are in it. I guarantee every time you put on this jacket, you will look good. Because, I mean, who doesn’t look good in this? At least from most angles? It’s easy to pull on official dress and to look like we have it all, like we’re holding the sun. What happens when we take this jacket off? Are we just some crazy guy standing with our hands up in the air wishing we are who we want to be? Next time you zip up your jacket (put jacket on), ask yourself, do you really believe in those standards and ideals or are they just an act for you? Take a second to think about what’s under this corduroy, think about how your butt looks.
What others see isn’t always who you are, but in the end, you know if you are holding integrity or not.
Who are you in this jacket?
But more importantly, who are you out of it?
Who are you from 360 degrees?
Thank you all for a tremendous year.
