Isaiah Massey – 1st VP

“There’s a popular quote going around that the person you will be in the next five years is based on the books you read, and the people you hang around.  Now this is very true, but this is more than just those two variables. The person you will become in the next five years depends on everything that you do. Your actions yesterday affect your life in the future.”

This is an excerpt from my favorite motivational speech called Feed Your Mind by fearless motivation.  I listen to this speech at least once a day because it challenges me to make the best choices I can make in the long run. A situation where I truly had to put this speech to practice was the end of my junior year in high school.  After FFA banquet, I had a dilemma. On one hand my football coach was telling me about the football programs that were scouting me to play for their program. On the other hand, my advisor was telling me that I had the potential to become a state officer.

Both choices would take a yearlong of commitment, and I had a big decision to make going into my senior year. Do I go down the path that I’ve known my entire life, or do I choose a path that I’ve only been in recently? As I got home from banquet I went downstairs to my room and laid out my football jersey and chapter jacket.  I looked at my football jersey and reminisced all the years I’ve had playing the sport with my friends when we were younger. As I studied my FFA jacket, I thought about all the friends I have made, all of the skills I have learned and the potential I have found in myself. The very thought of hanging up my cleats made me feel like I was disappointing a lot of people, but the thought of not perusing FFA made me sick to my stomach. With tears in my eyes, I had to think about that phrase that I always played in my head. “The person you will be in the next five years is based on the books you read and the people you hang around.” That phrase spoke volumes to me in that moment as I realized the amount of growth I’ve experienced because of FFA and that path that I am on, that if it weren’t for FFA then I wouldn’t be the man I am today.

FFA members, there will be many decisions to make in life and most of those decisions will require sacrifice. Still, the question you must ask yourself first is who the person is you want to be in the future? And, what are you going to do to speak your future into existence?