From the farm to the city...

Friday...the last day of conference:(

I somehow managed to get out of bed and ready to go by 7am. I decided that that was way too early, since we didn't have to be on the bus until 8- so I just layed back down for a while and then left. I got downstairs and ate with the rest of the gang and then got on the bus and headed towards Pioneer. When we got there we started off by writing down some things we learned and things we still wanted to learn. Overall, it was pretty obvious that we had learned a ton and only had questions about how Pioneer made such good food and how you can learn to climb a 30ft. cow! hahaha...the facilitators didn't understand that one.

So the first speaker of the day was Jill Brown, from UNL and she talked about resumes and interviewing. Yes, we are a bunch of farm kids, but you never know when you need these types of skills. Especially those of us who are still in college. We were all totally shot and she talked a million miles an hour- so it was fairly entertaining. After she spoke we had a panel discussion with some past new century farmer alumni that were there for the alumni conference. That was really cool- we just got to ask them general questions about how they do things and why they do it. It didn't get to see the whole thing because myself and Dan (participant from Iowa- just so happens to be the Iowa state FFA pres) had to go across town for a radio interview. For whatever reason they picked us two to do it. We hopped into a car with some girls from Pioneer and they took us all the way across DeMoines (not like it's that far). We went to WHO radios and did an 8 minute live intereview. They asked us about conference and our backgrounds. We also did some talking about women in ag and that whole bit. Afterward we decided it went fine. Not horrible, not amazing...just fine. I am super rusty with that type of stuff so I'm sure Dan did a better job, but it was alright. As we were on our way back to the conference we assumed that maybe the conference organizer dude listened to it. Not that it's a bad thing, but it always makes you nervous when someone listenes. So we get back in our conference room and everyone had already eaten lunch and headed to the auditorium to hear the next speaker in conjunction with teh alumni conference. As we walked into the empty conference room, I looked up at the big screen and saw the WHO radio website. We then realized that EVERYONE (including alumni) was listening over lunch....o how nice. So that was rather entertaining to say the least. We quick ate some leftovers from the kitchen and then snuck into the next speaker.

But, there was really no sneak to it- he pointed us out and asked us questions. It wasn't long into his talk and I realized he was crazy..very smart, but crazy. I didn't get much out of it because i was so focused on how spastic he was. His name was Dr. Kohl and he called his speach on economics and fundamentals "The Future of Ag." I don't have much for note on it because i was so distracted with my back that was getting super sore for no apparent reason and he was overly spastic and crazy!

After he spoke we broke up into our small groups for the last time and read all of our visions to one another. That was really cool and nice to hear that I'm not the only one with hopes and dreams. We then voted on who had the best one to be read at the banquet and broke our group session. I was glad to have my vision done, but it has a long ways to go! The kid that won the vote had a super simple one that was pretty down to earth. I'm jealous of his down to earthness! haha

Anyway, we then snapped a group photo. We were supposed to do that at noon but since Dan and I were gone they didn't. One kid, Jeremy had to leave right then beacuse he had to be home in the morning for a Young Farmers and Ranchers Conference. He almost didn't make the photo- but we got him in. So..it will be complete! :)

After this, we cleaned out our room, and boarded the bus to go downtown to the Meredith building for our banquet. Brittany and I got changed and tried to look "professional" and headed downstairs just in time. I actually had to call Colton because I had put my blazer in his hanging bag. I didnt' realize it until we were ready to head out the door so I called him and made him go back up to his room and get it! haha...I ended up dressing in the elevator! But, we made ti downtown to this really cool building that houses 40 magazine companies- one of them being our media partner, Successful Farming. After socializing with the Pioneer guy that headed up the conference and an alumnus of the conference, I was asked to do a short interview for successful farming. I got that over with pretty quick and by that time we were headed upstairs for the banquet. They had quite the spread and all sorts of fun things at our palce settings. We all got buisness cards and holders along with luggage tags that were persaonlized. It was short and sweet with a couple speakers, the four students from the different groups who read their visions, and then we all got certificates. I really enjoyed it. They actually showed that short video that I was saying I looked like an idot in eariler..and guess what- I did. hahaha. o well.

Afterward we mingled around a bit and then hopped on the bus and headed back to the hotel. We packed our stuff up and then changed and headed downstairs for the reception. We had some lag time so Wyatt and I started jitterbuggin. That was entertaining because most of those people didn't know how or weren't sure- so we taught a lot of folks! It was alot of fun, but by this time my back was ridiculously sore I didn't do too much. We followed that up by watching the half our video of our conference. It was pretty cool and I know eventually I'll get a copy. I was pretty much voted most photographed person because me or my hand is in the video a ridiculous amount of times! I guess I'll have to look at it again when it comes in the mail!

Afterward, I sat around quite a while and talked with people and listened to ridicuouls stories from peoples college experiences. Then, some of my buddies came and told a few of us to come across the street and see the party there. Ok...so we were planning on going out the last night but a lot of people copped out and went to bed. By the time I made it across the street...this was definitly not the case. Boy, were they having a good time...I was entertined and actually had fun making fun of their pool playing and spending other peoples money in the juke box! ...no I'm not that bad of a person I swear. And to boot, this bar was in the back of the Day Inn, and I'm pretty sure you would never find it unless you walked righ tinto the door- talk about whole in the wall. But, we had fun, and then walked back across the street and i headed upstaris and changed into my pajamas to go to bed. About this time, one of the guys calls me and advises me to leave my room.

I will explain no further...the moral of the story is that i wasn't able to get into my room and sleep in my bad till 4am when the first group of people were waking up and getting on the airport shuttle. I had to laugh as my friend Josh got on the elevator with a few drunk kids that hadn't gone to bed yet! hahaha....o boy. But, I finally got to bed.

"You Only Live Once"