I found a club when I went to high school. This club was the National FFA Organization.

A lot
of people think the FFA is just a bunch of future farmers getting together to be rednecks. Well
the club is so much more than that now. Yes, there are those redneck kids, but there are also kids
like me who focus more on academics yet still have a love for agriculture. FFA helped me
become the person I am today. My sophomore year in high school I ran for an officer position
and got vice-president my junior and senior year. This was the biggest leadership roll I had ever
had and it proved to be very beneficial. I know am confident in myself, have improved my public
speaking skills, and my time management skills. FFA also opened countless opportunities up for
me. I started with a few Career Development Events (CDE) and by the end of my senior year I
have competed in over 10. My favorite competition was the Ag Mechanics CDE, where we had
to compete in welding, wiring, woodworking, problem solving, and a written test. I excelled at
the written portions of the CDE. I was pretty good at the hands-on part as well, so I placed first
in the region three years in and row, placed 2nd in the state my senior year and my team placed
3rd in the state the same year. These CDEs I competed in came with a lot of success but a great
deal of failure as well. The first year I competed in poultry judging, my team place in the 20s.
The next year, my team placed 4th in the state. After we developed a team and found what each
person struggled with, we would focus on that and improve it. I focused on the written test in
poultry judging as well as my oral reasons. The next year we had tougher competition and placed
7th in the state, but our advisor told us that was still something to be proud of. FFA not only gave
me a chance to compete in competitions and develop as a leader but it gave me some of my best
friends who were also my team mates.