Hi North Central FFA District, this is Riley Sleichter
from the Abilene FFA Chapter, and it has been my pleasure to serve you as the
District Reporter over the past year. During my year of service, I have had the
opportunity to meet countless members of the North Central District, and to
those of you who have been cursed with my presence, you know that I am a
“bottomless pit” when it comes to eating, my whisper can be heard across a busy
room, and my love for my show cows is a bit excessive to say the least. For
those of you who have been blessed by avoiding my rampage of
making-friends-with-everyone-in-the-room, beware because you are soon to become
my next victim and will no longer be a stranger to me.
When I witnessed my
cousin’s high-school graduation three years ago, I chuckled to myself about the
desolate atmosphere of her graduation party, and I thought with an immature,
teenage confidence that I would not be as emotional as my cousin when it came
to my graduation. Not knowing many others than my immediate family, I spent the
day next to my dad because he insisted I left my cousin alone to be with her
friends. When I finally asked for his reasoning on why I should leave my cousin
alone with her classmates, he responded in that wise tone that all fathers
have: “After today, the chances of Brittney (my cousin) seeing all of her
classmates together again are very slim, but her seeing her family all together
will last her lifetime.”
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My father’s words, as always, made a considerable
impact on me and changed the way in which I view my high school graduation. The
mentality of “Senioritis” began looming over me on New Year’s Day when I
finally realized that the calendar struck the year 2017, and in five short months I would be strutting across the stage to receive my diploma. While most seniors who catch “Senioritis” tend to develop a form that
cannot wait for graduation, I caught a mutated version of the virus that
instead of yearning to graduate, I began to beg time to slow down. I began
regretting all the times that I decided to stay home rather than hang out with
friends and reminiscing the great memories I developed over the previous three
years. The realization of my father’s words finally hit me, and I realized that
in three months the 134 other people who I spent the first 17 years of my life
with will begin to scatter across the nation and phase out of my life.
Now I glance back to myself at my cousin's graduation party and realize that I am in the same shoes that she was in: yearning to make the most of the remainder of my high school career with my classmates. I have begun cherishing
the time I have with my classmates, and I am scrapping
for more. Whether it has been by feeding my calves an hour earlier to get to the game sooner or meeting my friends at Sonic on a school night at
nine-o’clock and talking for three hours (with parents’ approval of course), I
have begun treasuring every moment of time I get with them.
In the four years of my
high school education, one of the greatest ideas that I have grasped is that no
matter what we do time keeps ticking. Time is indifferent about the paper due
in the morning that you have yet to start and the calf that you are working so
hard to keep alive. No matter what you do, time
always prevails; that paper will be due at 8:00 the next morning and eventually that calf will pass away to become one, again, with the earth. Our time here on earth–and with our friends–is limited and it will continue to tick until ours finally runs out, no matter if we made the most of it or not. I encourage you to make the most out of the time you have with
your friends, because that
seemingly endless amount of time until graduation will come quicker than you
expect. Then, you will be saying goodbye to the people who you have spent a
majority of your life with, and it will be a bitter-sweet moment.
When the good phases of your life come
to an end and your life forever changes, relive a moment from your childhood to perpend Dr. Seuss' advice: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile
because it happened.”
Enjoy your time while you
have it,
Riley Sleichter
2016-17 North Central District Report
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