A Moment In Time

It was the moment I and 18 of my very best friends had been anticipating since Saturday, June 19th, 2010....We stood in the circle linked arm-in-arm as we listened to Alysson Moore call out 6 names, who would become the 2010-2011 North Carolina State FFA Officers. I can surely say, my heart has never stopped and neither has time, but I was certain that there was a "Pause" button that had been pushed. The dreaded Pirates of the Caribbean music was pounding in my ears, almost positive that I was going to pass out from anticipation...she started calling out the names: Cory Wade.....Elizabeth Eastep.....at that moment, I heard only "from the Gray's Creek FFA Chapter..." We had been instructed to run to our corresponding retiring officer and run on stage, well, the emotions overtook me and I charged Alex with gusto and drug her on stage, not the other way around, jumped on my two teammates, and couldn't help but shed a tear or two.
Patiently I stood, waiting for three more names to be called....Alycia McLamb....Daniel Alvey....Justin McEntyre. WOW! This was it! This was the team I had been assigned to, this was the moment we had been waiting for, this was the start of a year that was bound to be extraordinary, one I would never forget, and standing on either side of me were five people who would be tied to me for the rest of my life...Best Friends
After convention concluded, we sat at the back of the very empty convention center and looked around at the 2000 some odd seats, the FFA paraphernalia, and each other...taking in the moment, savoring the emotions...It was short lived, we were ushered to clean up the remains of convention, drove to the office, went up the stairs, to see our names already posted on the wall of the state office...waiting in the break room were 35 HappyMeals from the ever famous Golden Arches.
Later that night, we went to the Capital City Club in the ProgressEnergy building to overlook the beautiful city of Raleigh....dining with the state staff and Mr. Boyette from Farm Bureau. Mr. Johnson entertained each and every one of us with his humorous stories and by teasing Daniel about having never had KrispyKremeDonut (sorry Daniel, I had to !)...The evening ended on a positive note when we were all in the hotel sitting around talking about the day....humbled, excited, nervous, blessed......