Who Would've Thought?

We all know the saying, “Dogs are a man’s best friend,” right? Well that is true, but since I'm at college I can't bring my dog; therefore, I've resulted into purchasing two of the most ornery, wild, and enthusiastic Betta fish in the world, Marty and Martha. They are quite the characters. I purchased Marty and Martha November first at the aquarium here in Manhattan, Kansas and it was one of the best days of my life, but seriously. 

I have surprisingly gained and learned quite a bit from my two fish. I've learned that I can't feed them too much or they'll die (no brainer), they can't be put into the same bowl or they'll try and kill each other (found that out the hard way), and that they prefer clean water rather than month long dirty water (pretty obvious). Besides how fish act and behave, I've gained a couple valuable life lessons. I've gained responsibility and discipline simply from owning two Betta fish. Who would have thought that owning these fish could be so beneficial. 

One thing in the FFA that I think is overlooked sometimes is our Supervised Agricultural Experiences. We can gain so many skills and so much knowledge from working with our programs. I started my Supervised Agricultural Experience my Freshman year in high school and to this day I am still very involved in it. My SAE is Wildlife Production and Management where I help out with my family's hunting operation. I have gained so much from my SAE. I've obtained communication skills, responsibility, and time management. I encourage everyone, in or out of the FFA, to start some sort of program wether it be purchasing your own livestock, helping out with a fruit stand, or even purchasing yourself a couple of fish because in the end you will leave with much more than you put in! 

Peanut Butter and Jelly

“We go to together like peanut butter and jelly”. “We’re like two peas in a pod”. “I’m stuck on you like white on rice”. Okay so maybe you haven’t heard of the last one but the first two phrases, I hope, are pretty familiar. Now these great food analogies are most of the time used when describing friends that are pretty close. Many times these are the friends that are inseparable on the playground, eat lunch together on a daily basis, or regularly make some form of communication to keep in touch. These friends are the lifelong ones that you know, through hell and high water, will be there for you because they care about you. But the real question is are you reciprocating that feeling?

Think about it, we have been blessed with some truly incredible people in our lives that care so much about us! Our best friends, family members, coaches, mentors and so many more are all part of our support team. These are the people that have continued to help us achieve our goals, been there for us when we are down, and helped us to pick ourselves up and keep moving! They are our biggest cheerleaders, best motivators and sometimes our own personal therapists. But do we do the same for them?

I know that I would love to say yes to being there every time for those people I care but I know that there are times in my life that I have not held up my end of the deal when it comes to relationships. Looking back I can pinpoint times in my life when I could have done a better job at being a friend, role model, or teammate and I am sure that there are numerous times when I have not held up my end of the deal and totally didn’t even realize it. Let’s be honest we are all guilty of it, maybe it was forgetting a friends birthday, not taking the time out to give a few pointers to the kid playing on the basketball team we are coaching or not trying to reach a compromise and instead just storming out. The key is to try and remember that we are supposed to hold up our end of the bargain in every relationship and to continue to not just take, take, take but to give in return.

A quote that I have used to help me to keep this in perspective is by Scott Stratten. Scott was in a TED talk that I was advised to watch and had some very interesting and key points that were interesting to think on. The big message he had to share however was this. “Being a big deal, isn’t a big deal, especially if we don’t remember to be a bigger deal to the people we care about.”

Take some time and think on that. If we aren’t a bigger deal to those around us that helped let us become a “big deal” than we aren’t really a big deal. Our accomplishments, our successes all become worth nothing if we don’t take the time to give back to those who took the time and effort to support us and helped us to become successful. These friends, family members, coaches and mentors have helped you achieve the status of “big deal” and because of that they deserve a little pat on the back. So think back to those few people you consider the peanut butter to your jelly, the next pea in your pod; are you showing them the support that they have shown you?

“If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”- Zig Ziglar

Wear Your Letters

I know it has been a while since I have written one of these and I am really sorry about that! To all my food fans out there I am sorry as well, the next few paragraphs will have nothing to do with food… I know shocking! No, but seriously I wanted to take this time and talk about something I have forgot lately. This next quote will pretty much sum it all up so here it goes.

“From the moment you say yes to this organization, you are always wearing your letters.”

I saved this quote after a conversation I had with one of my friends in another fraternity here at K-State. To give a little background we had been noticing this picture kept coming up on Facebook for a couple of our “mutual friends” as Facebook calls them. This picture was of a fraternity member holding up a sign that talked about being a part of a fraternity and not a “frat”. Since we study together quite frequently together I brought up the topic of that picture to see what he thought about it. He quickly sent me to a blog post by a man named T.J. Sullivan. Then as any great, frustrating friend would, he would not talk to me anymore until I had read it.

I started to read the blog casually, not entirely too focused and more worried about which song was coming up next on my iTunes, until that quote in bold came up. Now I don’t know about anyone else but when something comes up in bold I normally pay more attention to it. After reading and rereading the quote several times I decided to go back to the beginning of the blog and really pay attention to the words that this man, with obviously much more experience and wisdom than I had, had wrote.

(For those of you who wish to read the blog before going on here is the link) http://tjsullivan.com/you-are-always-wearing-your-letters/

After I finished, I took it all in and then said something to my friend sitting across the table. Since he had a test the next morning at 8:30 and it was already pretty late he didn’t say much back. I was fine with that since I had my own homework assignment to be working on, and the only reason I had even mentioned this was because I had fallen into the time wasting trap of social media… again. So I dropped the topic and after quickly saving the quote and the article on my flash drive I continued to work on my homework.

I still don’t know how or why and am still kinda laughing about how God continues to place things where I need it, when I need it, but I just stumbled across this article in my flash drive again very recently. As I read and re-read the article again I looked back on my past few weeks of my life.

Now I am going to preface this next little part with the fact that I am a normal human being with a normal range of emotion and the rest of my team is a bunch of “soulless robots” when it comes to sad movies such as Marley and Me and Toy Story 3, sad songs such as “This is Your Life” by Switchfoot, and other “emotional” situations. Not really, but I for some reason am the only person on my team that tends to cry, and I don’t hardly ever cry, like at all!

But anyways, I did proceed to have what I like to call an “emotional life pause”. I realized that I being a human being had made some mistakes recently and I had wronged some people. I was not “wearing my letters” as the article had stated and I needed to make some changes.

Now in the article “wearing your letters” referred to the Greek letters that many fraternities use to distinguish themselves from one another. But to me “the letters” were a different set than my fraternity. F-F-A was the three letters that kept coming to mind after reading that powerful statement.

For those of you who haven’t went up to check out the link yet, I would urge you to please do, this saves me quite a bit of writing and Mr. Sullivan does a much more eloquent job of explaining it than I can. But to sum it up how much different would we act if our “letters” were tattooed to our foreheads for everyone to see? How much different would we act if everyone could see which organization we were in all the time? What would we do differently?

I am going to finish this blog post up with a quote that was on my chapter’s FFA T-Shirts my sophomore year of high school. It comes from one of my personal favorite movies “Stomp The Yard” and it is pretty neat if you take some time and think about it.

“The letters do not make you, YOU make the letters”

“People often say motivation doesn’t last… Well neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.”- Zig Ziglar

What delicious drink is the start of America’s morning? What caffeinated brew helps college students keep awake to finish their papers at 2 in the morning? What is the energy-giving source to get us through our “morning grind”?

Yes, that’s right, Coffee. We have to admit that in the United States we are pretty avid coffee fans. Think about it. According to Folger’s “It’s the best part of waking up” and “America runs of it” according to Dunkin’ Donuts. Starbucks, is a huge multi-million dollar chain solely run on selling coffee. As a culture we love coffee and I have to say that I am no exception.

Yep I am in love with that rich, dark, smell good, piping hot, caffeinated, drink. My unhealthy obsession may stem from the fact that anytime I go to the grocery store I have to go down the coffee bean aisle to get a whiff of that heavenly brew. Or maybe it was because I wanted to grow up and be like my Papa Bill with his slippers on and coffee mug in hand every morning. Whatever it is, my love for coffee has continued to grow and has only been fueled more by my entrance into college.

Now, I will have to admit that as a college student I probably do not drink too much above the average amount. But, on a brisk fall morning there is nothing better than sitting down and enjoying a Mocha Frappuccino that is piping hot. That feeling of the warm coffee going down and warming up your stomach, the feeling of the caffeine rushing through your veins and waking up entire body is a truly amazing experience for me.

This caffeine though, not only gets me, but also millions of other American’s across the nation, going and has been the morning startup for decades. Caffeine gives me the energy to go out and start my day off right and get my to-do list accomplished for the day!

But caffeine is not the only thing that gets me pumped and ready to take on the day’s challenges. Oh no, in the morning my fire gets a burnin’ if I start off my day with a run or swim workout. Or in midday my adrenaline starts to flow if I go out and play a game of soccer or volleyball. These things will get my body ready for the day and help keep it ready and going. But we have to think for ourselves what gets our minds and inspiration going every single day.

For me the caffeine, or energizers, of my inspiration can come from anything and everything. I don’t know how many times I have been going throughout my day and all of a sudden, BOOM, a jewel of inspiration comes along and motivates me to go out and do something. These gems of motivation have come from listening to a motivational speaker talk about constant and never-ending growth, having a conversation with an industry leader in agriculture about the need for students with good work ethic and hands on skills, or even from watching Paula Dean on the Food Network make a new twist on an old classic to name a few. The inspiration that I have comes from a variety of different sources but all has the same effect. It energizes me and gets me going just like my morning coffee does.

Think about what motivates and energizes you throughout your day. Is it going out and having a conversation with someone about an issue you are passionate about? Is your caffeine in the creation of a new recipe or developing a science experiment to test a new hypothesis? Is your motivation stemming from a motivational quote you have taped to your mirror or the set of goals you look at everyday? What is your caffeine in your life?

The Jalapenos of My Life

"It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not. Sometimes it takes a dog with bad breath, worse manners, and pure intentions to help us see. Ask yourself, how many people in the world can truly make you feel rare, pure, and extraordinary?" - Marley and Me

Have you ever tried to eat a habanero pepper just raw? Well I haven’t either but my friend who relayed his experience once told me that if I ate a jalapeño and magnified it by 100 then I would have the feeling. To understand what my friend meant I tried eating a jalapeno raw, and let me tell you it was almost like nothing I had ever tried before. Not only is there almost an immediate burning sensation, but also it lasts throughout the entire day and keeps burning and hurting and won’t stop! It made my whole face warm, brought me to pretty close to tears and made me just look ridiculous.

Now the reason I said it was almost like nothing I had ever tried before is because even though it wasn’t a food I have similar experience with two people. These people have at times made me a little hot-headed, brought me close to tears and sometimes still make me look a little ridiculous. As odd as it sounds they have made and will hopefully continue to make me feel just like that jalapeno did.

You may be thinking right now, “Ha, this is easy he is going to just talk about his family”. In a way, you are right. I do consider these people my twin brother and big sister, but they don’t live with me, nor do we share any of the same DNA. Yep, you guessed it. These are my two best friends that I would trust anything, absolutely anything with. Now I am not saying that they are the only people I would do that with, because my immediate family and blood relatives I would as well, and I love them just as much! But, it is more of a challenge to trust the people that are not blood and be able to say you could trust your life with them.

But these two jalapenos in my life can sure be a kicker, like eating a jalapeno raw, or they can be the perfect garnish to the enchilada that is my life. Either way, I believe they are necessary to for me to continue to grow as a person, socially, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

I have to say that when it comes to talking, yelling, and projecting my voice I do a good job…sometimes too good of a job. Okay, I enjoy talking a little too much. I love interacting with people and telling my family and friends stories about my day and things I learned about food…because I am obsessed with FOOD! But, have you ever had issues with someone because they are just too much like you? Well one of my best friends literally is the loudest person I have ever been around and probably likes talking even more than I do. She can talk and talk and talk about anything and sound intelligent about it. On top of that she has one of the loudest laughs I have ever heard as well. Now, don’t get the impression that she is just this non-stop obnoxious loud chatterbox, because that is the impression I got my freshman and sophomore year and man was I wrong.

I will admit this person is a big reason I was ever enrolled in an agriculture education class and I am eternally grateful to her for that. But once we started travelling together, were on an officer team together for the first year, started interacting with each other more and more, I began to realize that our two personalities were clashing a bit more and more each week. It got to the point to me where I would go home and vent about her to my family about how loud she was and we just were not getting along. My mom continued to let this venting go on until she realized that I did not see it the way she could see. She saw, that I was complaining about someone who I had so much in common with, so much history with, so many personality traits that we shared, and that I needed to stop.

My mom and dad’s sit down chat with me that night changed my life in ways that I could never have fathomed that night. Not only did it make me realize how ridiculous all the fighting was but the potential friend that I was missing out on. Jo and I soon became friends, then best friends, and now attending college together and just being together as much as we have she is like an older sister to me. She gives me all the advice an older sibling, that I never had, would, she allows me to talk to her about anything and she just has become one of the best role models I have ever had and I feel so privileged to call her my friend.

So imagine someone who is 6’ 6”, dirty blond hair color, and is a super athlete, enough so he is playing both football and basketball on the college level. This pretty much describes my twin and total opposite of me in terms of looks. Now when I say twin I mean that we have been friends since pre-school and were only born 9 days apart, not that we are anything alike.

Nick and I attended pre-school, grade school, middle school and high school together and this year is the first year we have ever been apart in school together, with him attending Baker University and me at KSU. Nick and I started off in some of the same sports, then, well lets just say the cream of the crop started to rise and those of us who were not so “gifted” stayed at the bottom. That is not to say I didn’t still try and stay active in sports. I was a 4-year member of the swim team and 3-year member of the soccer team in high school, so don’t say I didn’t try. But I still tried to stay in shape, just was not at peak physical fitness like Nick was.

One drawback however, of the athletic giftedness of Nick is that he was not able to attend many FFA events. Now I knew Nick liked the FFA but his passion was competing in sports. Whether it was a pick-up game of basketball or the regional championship of a football game he was always trying to win. Watching Nick follow his passion inspired me to really find my passion in something.

I tried sports, I liked them but I was not passionate about them. I attempted to be involved in the drama dept. in high school and that wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Then agriculture education class happened. I luckily found an organization that I was passionate about and an industry that I could be proud of. So I took hold of every opportunity I could in class and found Nick and I continuing to go in more and more different paths in high school.

When I realized that I had lost my friend in the total wrapped up state I was in with FFA I realized a need in the shift for my priorities. I started to take the time to set aside different things and hang out with Nick and my other friends that I had pushed away while I was caught up in the FFA world. This shift in my priorities was probably the biggest change I had in myself and realizing that the personal connections I make with not only my friends but also anyone I meet was vital.

Nick has taught me so much throughout my life and about how I should live it. Not only did he teach me to find my passion but taught me that the relationships I build with people are some of the most important and meaningful things I have in my life. These lessons I will hold with me my entire life no matter what I do.

My two best friends in my recipe to life have taught me so much and are two people I look up to so much. There are so many times that I could have been a better friend and took them for granted at times. But I know that they will be there for me through thick and thin and through whatever challenges I may have no matter what. They empower me to achieve my goals and never try and drag me down. Johanna and Nick are those two jalapeños in my life. Who are yours?

“Stay away from people who belittle your aspirations. Small people do that. But the truly great people in the world will make you believe that you, too, can one day become great.”- Mark Twain