March Madness

March Madness. This phrase usually refers to a month full of basketball, basketball, and well, more basketball. What does my March Madness consist of? I'll give you a hint: it isn't basketball...

Alright, so I take that back. The 2nd weekend of March I spent in Lincoln, NE because West Boyd made it to the state basketball tournament...Go Spartans! :) While on the whole school note, another huge part of my March has been devoted to the Speech team. Tomorrow I am headed to Kearney, NE for Nebraska State Speech to compete in extemporaneous speaking.

State Officer application all ready to go!

Well, now that all of that stuff is out of the way, let's get to what has been the most exciting part of March Madness for this girl...Nebraska FFA! :D March 1st was the deadline to get in Nebraska FFA State Officer applications.  While I had been working on mine on and off since Christmas vacation, this deadline still snuck up on me way too fast!  No worries though, the application was to Nebraska FFA right on time! :)

Old and new friends coming together
 at preliminary interviews :)

On March 16th I made the 3 hour trip to Kearney, NE for preliminary State Officer interviews.  I was joined by 25 other State Officer candidates in Kearney and together, we went through 7 rounds of interviews on Friday and Saturday.  These interviews ranged from one-on-one interviews with individual nominating committee (nom comm) members, to group teamwork interviews, to individual interviews in front of all 10 nom comm members.  The nom comm was made up of past Nebraska FFA State Officers, agricultural educators, and other agricultural industry leaders.  I remember coming out of one of the interviews seriously contemplating calling my mother to ask her what else I knew about myself because I felt like I had just given my life story 20 times over...needless to say, the interviews were extremely intense, but it was such an amazing experience!  I think my Facebook status sums it up pretty well:

32 hours, 1 iPod on shuffle, 360 miles, 7 interviews, 10 nom comm members, 25 bonds formed/strengthened with some of the greatest FFA members, 3 hours of sleep, and tons of memories later...I am finally home from FFA State Officer interviews in Kearney. :) It truly was one of the greatest experiences! Now, it's a waiting game till Monday morning. :/

Email informing me I had been chosen as a finalist.
I have never been so excited to receive an email in my life!

After anxiously waiting all of Sunday and part of Monday morning, I received word at 10:30 that I was chosen as 1 of 14 finalists to interview at the Nebraska State FFA Convention March 28th, 29th, and 30th! :D The seven 2012-2013 Nebraska FFA State Officers will be announced during closing ceremonies on the 30th.  Until then, I will be prepping for 3 days of interviews.  No matter what happens, this whole experience will be something I will never forget! :)