This evening, I have the honor of attending the FFA creed speaking contest at my daughter’s local high school. 

The FFA Speaking Contest is held throughout the world as a rite of passage for most freshman joining the organization. There are several different categories of public speaking throughout the evening, such as prepared speaking and extemporaneous speaking too. 

Most of the veteran members compete in prepared and extemporaneous, covering an assortment of agriculture-related topics. 

I have the chance to watch a handful of sweaty, nervous high school freshman, recite, paragraph by paragraph, the ideology of FFA members around the world. 

Most people would miss the event, if they weren’t going to cheer on their own child, but I would have gone either way. I can’t begin to tell you how important this contest is for our youth. 

It isn’t about the creed. 

E.M. Tiffany had great words of wisdom in 1928 and the majority of those words still ring true, but the value of the event stretches beyond the world of agriculture.

It isn’t about the perfect memorization. Every good speaker stumbles on their words from time to time. 

It’s about sweaty palms. 

It’s about a heartbeat you can feel. 

It is about doing something absolutely terrifying to you. 

It’s about trusting in yourself and your ability to remain calm in a situation that makes your stomach feel like the butterflies are going to violently escape, through your mouth. 

It’s about hard work and putting effort into something you don’t always immediately reap the benefits of.   

In agriculture, we are no strangers to the waiting game. We plant crops; we wait. We breed cattle; we wait. Very few things worth having in the world arrive in our hands, instantly.

Over 20 years ago, I stood in the very same lunchroom my daughter will be standing in this evening. With sweaty palms and a racing heart, I recited the same word-for-word agriculture principles my daughter will recapitulate years later. 

With the countless hours of rehearsal and memorization, my daughter had the opportunity to learn so much. 

She has learned the power of her voice. She knows how to get your attention just simply by changing the pitch she uses. She knows how to show importance to a subject by emphasizing the word of significance. 

She knows how quickly to speak and just when to slow down to add suspense. She knows how to grab your eye contact as she scans around the room, making you feel just as involved in her conversation as the next. She’s learned how to breath and how to control her volume, consistently. She’s learned the importance of speaking with her hands and adding an action to her words. She has learned to stand proud, even in her “uncomfortable” official dress. 

Tonight, I have the chance to watch my daughter stand in the footsteps of so many young agriculturalists who have accomplished great things. Some may call the event or any form of public speaking a near death experience.
The lessons learned in what feels like a near death experience, are lessons you don’t forget. 

It isn’t about the creed.   

The wise words of E.M. Tiffany, adopted by the National FFA Organization in 1930, still pound in my head. I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast, but I can remember the near-death experience of standing in front of a crowd of parents and fellow FFA members, with sweaty hands, learning how to believe in myself.