I'm sure everyone knows this song from The Lion King and quite like the tune, but as I listened to it on Monday as I watched The Lion King to help me relax I truly realized how much this phrase truly relates to my life. This song, this sentence is revolutionary, it teaches us a very import life lesson: No matter what we go through life the thing waiting for us at the end, our "Kingship" will be well worth it.
I just can't wait to be king. What this means to me is: I can't wait to truly make it, I can't wait to show everyone that no matter what they think about me or my potential I can blow it out of the water. I can't wait for that one day, the day I will finally make it to that mountain top and show everyone what I have become. No matter what stands in my way, no matter what obstacles are in my way, they won't keep me down. Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever thought I would turn out like this, if my ag teachers knew what would happen when I walked into that ag room, when those RPs and SOs saw me at SGLC, when I first met the State Staff of the Minnesota FFA, when my friends saw me move to Arlington and when those kids first laid eyes on me at Sibley East.
To anyone out there that doesn't think they can do something I ask you why not? Who gave you that idea that you can't succeed at something? What kind of sick person would put that thought into your head? I'll tell you this: You can do anything that you put your mind to. Such a simple phrase we hear growing up, but the truth is you really can. What do you think any of the revolutionists, or the evolutionists as I learned at the EMP museum today, were told when they grew up. What did Neil Armstrong's parents tell him when he first told them he was going to be the first man to walk on the moon? No matter what anyone tells you, you truly can do whatever it is you want as long as you give it your all.
Take a look at me: I'm a senior who was slated as the 2012-2013 Region President of Minnesota FFA's VII Region. Me: Vinzenz John Karl, the kid that grew up in the middle of Richfield and went to a private Catholic school until the 4th grade when his family picked up and moved to little Arlington. The kid that had no idea what agriculture was beyond the dinner table. The kid that got an ISS in 6th grade and two detentions and more anger problems than he'd ever like to remember in 7th. The kid who felt like the single most outcast at his first ever FFA event outside of his chapter. The kid who up until a month ago thought he was going to be a doctor. Now where am I now?
I know I'm no king yet, but I'm on my way and nothing will stop me. I am currently on my way to serving Region VII as their 2012-2013 Region President. I'm enrolled at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities to have the best and most educational 4 years of my life to become an Agricultural Education teacher. I take it day by day; learning things most kids learned when they saw their dad do them on the farm. I will give everything I have to continue to grow in my agricultural knowledge because I know I still have a long way to go, I will be the very first and definitely not the last to admit that. I have faced so many setbacks throughout my life I don't know where to start, but I do know where it's going to end. It's all going to lead to me chasing my dreams, no matter what they are or what they turn out to be. Wherever you may see me you might think I may not belong, I may not know as much as you or I may not have the most experience, especially in agriculture, but I do have one very important factor that you most likely don't: My Passion.
This is the thing that separates myself from the rest of the world around me. My passion is the fire within my soul that will carry me farther than I would have every imagined. I truly can't wait to be king. I can't wait for that day when everything I've work towards falls into place and I have truly made it. I can't wait for everyone's reactions when they have seen where I have come from and where I end up. No matter what anyone has ever thought about me or when and where they thought I'd fail, I'll show them that it doesn't matter what they think. Because once I make it nothing else matters. Once I become king all of my struggles will have been worth it.
Never in my life would I imagine I would be honored with such a title as Region President. If you told me I would get the privilege of working at the CHS Miracle of Birth Center this past summer I would have called you insane. As a kid all I knew was the city life and never once did it ever cross my mind that I would have gotten the chance to do many of the things FFA has brought to me, but that's the funny thing about passion. Passion pushes you to do things you never thought imaginable or in your future until you understand what that passion is. Passion is what makes people do some pretty revolutionary things.
So I challenge every single one of you reading this: find your passion and follow it wherever it may bring you. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do something because quite frankly their wrong. Keep pressing on and move forward towards that goal, because once you become King it will all be worth it.
