This year, Delphi’s FFA went to Indianapolis to attend the 96th National Convention & Expo. The convention ran from November 1-4th, and the students attended the 2nd and 3rd. Everyone was welcome to attend; on the second day, only seniors and junior officers attended a session. FFA members from all 50 states were invited. Blue FFA jackets flooded the streets of Indy. But, the best part of attending is the members, and how friendly everybody is. No matter where you were, people were always willing to talk and have fun. 

I attended on the first day, and here is my account of the day’s events. We woke up very early, and the bus left the school at 5:30 a.m. to head to Indianapolis. We arrived early in Indy and headed into Lucas Oil Stadium where they began to kick off the day. There was music playing and then the National FFA Officers came on the stage to talk to all of the members in attendance. After this, there was a motivational speaker, Juan Bendana. He was very funny, but his speech also had lots of meaning. He talked to us about his experiences in life and how they shaped him to be where he is today. He wanted us to be more confident and have more respect for ourselves as older members of FFA.

After we were done in Lucas Oil, we walked over to the convention center. It was freezing cold outside, so we were happy to stay in. We walked around a bit, then decided we were hungry, so we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings. After we finished eating, we walked back to the convention center. There were many booths, some of the more popular ones being Ariat, U.S. Army, RAM, Case IH, Tractor Supply, John Deere, and many more. We walked around and gathered free stuff left and right, and hit up the Culvers booth about three times where they were giving out free ice cream. 

We spent the rest of the time checking out the actual shops and booths set up where we could buy souvenirs. I ended up buying a new pair of shoes because official dress shoes are not comfortable enough to walk around all day on. It was probably my most reasonable purchase of the day. There was a booth selling all sorts of weirdly-flavored suckers, and I ended up buying about 25 of them to give to my friends. 

After we left Indianapolis around 5 pm, we stopped in Lafayette to go roller skating. We ended up at Great United Skates where we were able to roller skate and play at the arcade. Overall, we ended up having a great time and I would definitely recommend that FFA members in the future sign up to attend! It’s a unique experience to be able to attend, and considering people travel from all 50 states to come to Indianapolis for a week of the convention, it is very convenient that we are only an hour and a half away. Awards are given out, and it is a huge deal for members to go and see their schools awarded on a national level!