Stepping out of a comfort zone

My name is Allissa Bodiford and I am Prairie Grove’s FFA Chapter vice president. Through my chapter’s leadership activities, such as camps and career learning events, I have learned many lifelong skills and met many people. My freshman year I didn’t think that I would grow so much as an individual through FFA but once I started getting involved, I’ve loved it ever since. I continue to push myself to work harder and be more competitive, especially in Nursery/Landscape judging.

I joined my freshman year as a last minute option because I knew the name of a few flowers. Now my goal is to grow the whole team to be more and more competitive. I do enjoy missing school but even more than that I enjoy checking our scores after a long competition, especially when we did better than expected. Even though some competitions are harder than others, I still feel like career development events (CDE) are a great life lesson to put in as much hard work and effort as you expect to get out. You get to meet amazing people, even some people who make you want to push yourself to become more competitive.

Outside of the competitions, I enjoy the opportunity to attend ALC. It’s at Camp Couchdale in Hot Springs and, since it’s during the summer, we get to play water games and don’t have to worry about catching up on schoolwork. I like that we get to meet people from different schools and learn more about people from different sides of the state. My favorite part of ALC is chapter night where we get to leave camp and go places with our chapter. We usually end up going to the same place as other chapters that we already made friends with so it turns out to be a really good time.

Getting involved in a few small events helped me push myself to step out of my comfort zone and try new things. Just exploring new things allowed me to sign up for an officer position and then sign up again the next year. I’ve come a long way since my freshman year because I got myself involved and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. Now I can say that I’m in Nursery/Landscape, on a Trap Shooting team, about to be on a Beef Quiz Bowl team and take every chance I can to be involved.

I would encourage anyone who isn’t involved to try it. It really is fun and as long as you allow yourself to have a good time you will have a good time.

Submitted photo These Prairie Grove FFA members attended Summer Camp at Camp Couchdale during the summer of 2022: (front, left) Aubree Wood, Channing Ashworth, Abigail Dorey, Allissa Bodiford, Lily Davis, Rylie Bignor; (back, left) Jarret Bone, Brody Ruiz, Luke Peoples, Samuel Lunsford, FFA sponsor Clint Hale.

Submitted photo Members of Prairie Grove FFA attended the winter leadership camp at Camp Couchdale: (front, left) Haily Riddle, Aubrey Wood, Chloe Hillian, Reany White, Rylie Bignor, Emma Kelly; (back, left) FFA sponsor Clint Hale, Conner Lantz, Jarret Bone, Brody Ruiz.