Purpose.

Last year as a state officer, I had the pleasure of working closely with 9 individuals. We spent late nights, early mornings, stressful situations, and amazing times together all while becoming a family. Each one of these amazing people have taught me something different, things that I will keep with me for the rest of my life. There is one persons lesson that has stuck very closely to me over the past few months...

For anyone who knows my friend Michael Mardesen, you would know that Michael does an amazing job at being himself and letting everyone know he was there. This kid can be awkward, quirky, a little out there, and crazy all at the same time. I mean, this kid puts gravy on his pizza, talks to his pigs like their people, bring his "Mem" (Mom) into any conversation, and drives 2 hours back to Griswold after we all go to sleep so no one knows he forgot his official dress. In fact, before our state officer team was elected, the other 8 of us confessed we thought Michael was a little on the weird side. (You would think so too if you saw a boy sitting in the corner of the room with his headphones in talking to no one in a group of 15 while everyone else was singing Garth Brooks.) It's safe to say Michael know's what he loves in life: agriculture (specifically livestock), his Mom, junk food, and talking.

It is for these reasons that I love Michael as a good friend and brother.

Michael has the amazing ability to know what he loves, and not let anyone change that for anything. No matter who laughs at him or how much people poke fun, Michael sticks by everything he believes in. I saw this first hand last year. Michael is a pre-vet major and as a state officer you tend to miss your fair share of class making it difficult to balance a difficult major and the time commitment of serving 12,500. While most of us were stressing about classes, Michael was doing everything in his power to be the best at what he loved. And if that meant only getting 2 hours of sleep every night, then that's what he would do, and during the whole journey he never forgot to put a smile on his face..or to help put one on people around him.

As April 25 came around and I retired from state office, I was caught somewhere in the whirlwind of change desperate to find the one thing to cling to: my purpose. I was all of a sudden scrambling to find who I am, what I believed in, and what it is the good Lord put me on this Earth to do. As I took an internship at the FFA Enrichment Center I began to wonder more and more what my purpose was. One thing has stuck with me, and will always be with me.

In the midst of one of Michael's and my conversations, he told me "No matter what you're doing, don't ever forget to add in your own 
-ness" . 


Meaning, don't ever lose touch with that one thing you have that no one else has...YOU! Michael does a fantastic job at adding in his own "Michael-ness" into anything and everything he does. Don't ever be ashamed to be you and to add in your own little touch. There's a song called I Was Here by Lady Antebellum and it states:

I wanna do something that matters

Say something different

Something that sets the whole world on it's ear

I wanna do something better

With the time I've been given

And I wanna try to touch a few hearts in this life

And leave nothing less than something that says

I was here

What are you going to do that leaves your mark? How are you going to add in your -ness?

-Sar.

Change.

After wanting to start a blog for quite sometime now, I figured there's no better time than today! It's funny how once things get a bit crazy, and life seems to be never slowing down..we always seem to forget about things we've always wanted to do. Such as, start a blog. 

The word "crazy" has been the headliner of my life for the past year and 4 months. After being elected the 2011-2012 Iowa FFA Secretary, things were on a continuous cycle of constant change. A girl coming from small town Iowa, the opportunities I have had the past 16 months have been nothing less than the word, change. School activities, family, friends, and work at the local Fareway consumed my life growing up in Northeast Iowa, giving me minimal reasons (outside of summer vacations) to leave my 50 mile radius stretching from Oelwein to Waterloo. So, when I thought driving the "back roads" to get to Waterloo was a bit on the scary side, it was nothing compared to 70 mph Interstate 35. Last summer, highway 20 and interstate 35 between Fairbank and Ankeny became my best friends, having the pleasure of driving them a minimum of once every week.

As my summer past, I realized the change of my atmosphere, the way I was thinking, what was now important to me, and dreams I never thought I had. No I'm not just talking about the number of miles I racked up on my 1999 Mercury Cougar, the amount of Facebook friend I magically have added, or the hours of sleep that I was now accustomed to; but noticing the way change had effected my everyday lifestyle.

I was now only a regular shopper of a Fareway store, visits to my friends and family were very few and far between, and I was a student at a community college instead of a high school in the middle of a corn field.

I've stated the obvious changes I have had over the past year, however, there's one more piece to the cycle. The most meaningful and important piece is the people I have meet on the adventure to where I am that have changed my life. Whether it was talking to an eighth grader, listening to them telling me their life ambitions, or hearing a senior tell me she wanted to become a teacher to hopefully have an impact on someone; like her teachers have done for her. Or stopping at a gas station in small town northwest Iowa, listening to a group of elderly men tell me about their childhood, it's easy to say I was moved. The determination and motivation these 3 individuals displayed to me, showed me that in even in the confusion and frustration...change is what keeps us going.

When sometimes we get caught in the whirlwind of change, there's one thing we can always cling to...our purpose.