It is finally that time of the year when everyone is planning their summer vacations, and honestly, slacking even more on all our school work. With a few more weeks until the end of my junior year, I don’t think I could be more excited. I’m actually ahead of schedule and have all my summer activities planned out to ensure I have the best summer yet, especially considering it’s my last summer as a high school student! It’s crazy, exciting, and I cannot wait.
So far, I have three FFA camps I’ll be going to. The first one is the Arkansas State Convention. I’ll be going to this convention with my Searcy FFA chapter. It’s about a four day camp at Camp Couchdale in Hot Springs, AR which is where our Arkansas FFA’s headquarter is at. Pretty much every FFA chapter in Arkansas attends the camp. Some chapters may bring members as well as officers, but our chapter just takes our chapter officers, where I hold the Vice President position. During the convention, many workshops are held by the state officers which mainly cover leadership skills. FFA is the biggest supporter of agriculture awareness, but what most people don’t know is that leadership and preparing us for the real world is also a huge aspect of FFA.
About a week or so after that, I will head off to Washington D.C. for the FFA Washington Leadership Conference. I don’t know as much about this camp because it will be my first year going. Yet, the little information I do have about it makes it sound like the best experience of a life time. Only a certain amount of people from each state is accepted to go, and only 40 FFA students from Arkansas will be traveling to the convention. Me and another Searcy FFA member, Katey Carnitz, will be going with the rest of the 40 from Arkansas. Even though I’ll know at least one person at the convention, I will be rooming and attending the convention with strangers from around the country! I know I’ll learn many leadership skills outside of my comfort zone.
When I get back from Washington, I’ll have about two weeks for break to lay around and enjoy the summer, but then I go right back to Camp Couchdale for my last camp for the summer. This camp is called Arkansas Leadership Camp (ALC). This will be my third time attending this camp, and out of the camps I’ve been to before, I would say it is one of the most fun camps to attend! Like State Convention, FFA chapters from around the state come, mainly just the officer teams though. This camp isn’t as serious at all, it is more laid back and full of fun summer games that end up having some kind of leadership moral learned by the end of it. We will be at Couchdale for about four days and then we’ll head back to Searcy.
Even though I’ll have to stay in school until June, I have my eventful filled summer to look forward to, and on top of that, my senior year starting in the fall!
