Brian Reed Interviewed at 96th Texas FFA State Convention in Houston

Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres and I am at the Texas FFA convention in Houston, Texas. And my guest today is Dr. Brian Reed. Brian, welcome to the show. Thank you. All right, Brian. So a lot of fun at convention this year. How are you doing, man? Absolutely great. I got a new set of kids. Yeah. I've changed schools. And we were in a position where they weren't even ready to come to state convention. They haven't, that school hasn't actually come to state convention in several years. So I've got a group of mostly senior boys that have never come to state convention. And they're just, it's their first year, their first watched. And the only chance I was when I spoke to them about mm-Hmm. going, and they were like, yeah, I don't know. I was like, this is probably gonna be your only chance to get to go. Wow. Since, and they were like, okay, we'll, we'll go. How hard are they doing? Are they they are, they're thrilled. They're worn out. Absolutely. Are they amazed? I can't imagine being that age coming here and just like, like wide-eyed. Yeah, that's exactly how they are. I tell 'em, I was like. Get ready because that first session is like a rock and roll show. And and I, after I saw them after that first session, I was like, was it everything I said? And they were like, absolutely. Like my ears are ringing. So let, let's go back a bit here. How, how, how did you originally learn about or get, get introduced to FFA? I grew up in Missouri on a cattle operation. We'd be the, I would be the third generation on the same piece of property. My grandfather Purchased that land. There's a piece of the farm that actually was purchased by my great grandparents. So agriculture has been in my family for basically every generation. Yeah, since we came over from england i've done a lot of genealogy research and everybody is everybody all the way back is has been agriculture. Wow so i'm very tied to the land. I'm very tied to the production side of the pack. I had a, I had a good FFA experience growing up in high school and led to staying in agriculture, that's where I want to be, that that's my home base. That's my livelihood. It's where my heart is. So as faculty and just being involved with the organization as a whole, like what, what keeps you coming back? Like what keeps that fire going? It's got to be the kids. Hmm. I heard somebody say the other day, the kids don't change, but we get older. And I think that that's true, but yet I didn't know, I didn't think about that. You're right, especially if you take the convention setting specifically, because it's the same age group. Yeah. So, you know, 10, 20 years, I come back, they'll be the same age. There'll be a new crop, of course, kids, but and some of the, some of the the young members that were maybe even on this show, when they come back, you know, they're going to be the old dogs one day, like, man, I talked to you when I was in this, that 10, 15 years ago. And then at that point I'm like, Oh man, I knew this was going to happen. Absolutely. And, and Yeah, but I have always said the kids, the kids keep me young. Listen to their crazy teenage drama and I'm sitting back laughing and going, yeah, I did that back in the day. I remember how dumb I felt after it was all over with and you know, just to to experience Those teenage years, year after year, helping those kids grow, but living more or less off of their excitement. Mm hmm. That keeps me coming back. Yeah. I want to stay, you know, some of the kids are like, when will you retire? And I said, probably when they haul my dead body out of the classroom. That's what I said. Mine was in the classroom, but they're like, am I ever going to? When do I? I'm like, when am I never going to want to like be a teacher? Energized and be able to, like, connect with people, like, I'm not, if as long as my body's working, I'm in, you know? That's absolutely right. Yeah. That's absolutely right. What's been your favorite part about Convention this year? Like, any specific moment, you know? Well, having a hurricane roll in was a nice new thing. I said your favorite. Nah, I didn't say memorable. Well, that's memorable. I did, but I didn't say memorable. I said favorite. Memorable works, too. Like, share that story. I don't know if you remember we had a side conversation. There was another student. Oh, no, you weren't for this one. I was having a conversation with a student. They were telling me about like their hotel didn't have electricity and this and that and all these other things. But you know what was interesting? Unlike myself, who would have been complaining, I'll pick on me, They were loving it. She was like, it's like camping. We were camping. It was hot. And then I finally like we were taking cold showers. They were like camping outside. Yeah, the the boys Went through it all we were in airbnb and That house didn't have electricity for two days. Oh my gosh, there was

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