The Inspiring Words of State Treasurer, Clayton King

Clayton King, 2016-17 Idaho FFA Treasurer

Hello Idaho FFA, Clayton here! I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend, if your school has reconvened of course! This blog post is going to be directed mostly to the Junior class who will soon be Seniors and be forced to take up the mantle of helping the brand new Freshmen. But I still encourage the underclassmen to read this because one day it will be you.

Juniors, there will be a day when you will be considered celebrities to the freshmen. They will look to you for advice and to be an example for them, so take that responsibility very seriously. I know, I know this is the advice that every senior has given you at one point or another. I was given the same advice my Junior year and didn’t really listen to it, but I should have.

My Senior year rolled around and I just went about it like any other, I felt that there was nothing special about it other than it was my last year of high school. Until homecoming week that was. We went through the week like usual, competitions, football practices, getting ready for the big game. It felt normal until I noticed that quite a few freshmen were looking to me for advice about how they could make certain competitions easier or what to do in this class. It really caught me off guard and I didn’t know how to handle it. So in the midst of trying to figure out the situation I learned something, something that stuck with me for the remainder of that year. I learned that my opinion was truly valued by these newer students. They saw me as a way to learn what high school was all about and how to survive it.

So my message to you, Juniors and upperclassmen, is to look for as many opportunities that you can to help a student. Whether it be in a class, directions to the study room, or simple just talk to them for a second. It will make an impact far greater than you can imagine and will leave a legacy until long after you have graduated.

Finally I would like to say good luck to all the Seniors as they are finishing their year and preparing for their life ahead. Also good luck to the rest of you as you work through finals and the start of your new semester. Also I am going to leave a picture attached of my Chapter Officer team at the end of senior year. The picture is a mixture of seniors and a younger officers that we had grown very close to.

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day!