national convention

FFA National Convention is one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had. In this article, I’m gonna share all about our trip. Our advisor took four of us from our chapter and we traveled to Indianapolis in October. We traveled with other schools in our county and made lots of stops along the ten-hour drive. We stopped in a mountain town café for breakfast, a farmers market, and of course Buccee’s. When we finally arrived in Indianapolis it was dark and rainy. We made one last stop for supper and then headed to our hotel. This hotel was one of the nicest we had ever stayed in, we aren’t used to big cities. Once we were checked in we unloaded our luggage and all wanted to crash, but couldn’t out of excitement for the next day. 

The next day we headed over to the convention center. The convention center was huge and had tons of booths. There are two sections to the expo, the shopping side and the corporation/college side. We learned so much about different businesses that support and influence agriculture and programs through colleges available to us. They gave us lots of free items and we even did some line dancing in a booth that had karaoke. We also did some damage on the shopping side, I mean five girls and endless western boutiques, what else would you expect? 

Most of our time consisted of being at the expo center, but we also did some exploring around Indianapolis. We attended workshops and awards at The Lucas Oil Stadium. A sheep farm, called Poe Hamps, educated us on the sheep they raise and show. A creamery, called Traders Point Creamery, gave us a tour around their farm and restaurant where they serve homemade ice cream, the best I’ve ever had! While downtown, we visited The Indianapolis Zoo, a coffee shop, and a Native American museum, and we may have almost fallen off our rental bicycles.

One of the best parts of FFA is all the amazing people you meet, and we met a lot. I saw some of my friends from Virginia whom I had previously met at a church camp. We also met influencers such as Dale Brisby and Blake Moore. It was crazy to see fellow FFA members from all over the country. The drive home was long but almost everybody on the bus slept through it all. This trip was one I’ll never forget. I learned so much and gained so many new relationships and memories, I am forever grateful that I was able to go to National Convention.