Today Catharine ended a chapter of her life - she wore her FFA jacket for the very, last, time. She served as chairman of the Nominating Committee for the CA State Association, as is customary of the past president. Because she does everything with vigor and intent, the process of working with the committee members, guiding them in finding 6 new officers was exhausting. But of course there is the added excitement of seeing her old teammates, old friends, and a multitude of special people in her life. And because there are not enough hours in the day, she of course has not slept more than 4 hours each night.
I could tell this was going to be a difficult moment for her - taking that jacket off, which became a second skin in her year of being state president, was like saying goodbye to an old friend you knew you would never see again. It will hang in her closet, but now will be a token, a special token at that, of the last six formative years of her life. It symbolizes her failings as well as her triumphs, and is the constant that kept her balanced as possible. She has won and lost great great things in that jacket, but I like to think that rather than tally those it is better to see how she has grown in that blue corduroy. She has learned about herself, made lifelong friends, and has developed into the confident young woman she is today.
We have all tagged along on this wild ride with her, ready to catch her when she fell, and prop her up. We rejoiced with her, and we cried with her.
The jacket, as she said, is just a uniform, just some cloth sewn together. The important part is what is inside.
I am so proud of her.
