DeShawn Blanding – The Book of Life

This is DeShawn Blanding's 2017 retiring address as 2016-17 National FFA Southern Region Vice President. Framing life as a book with chapters already written, Blanding uses personal stories—a lost class election, learning to tie his shoes, and the loss of his friend Asante to suicide—to encourage members to trust in the book of life by letting go of what they can't control, stopping to listen and learn, and holding onto hope. He weaves in examples of fellow FFA members who found joy through hardship, challenging the audience to discover that same joy in their own lives.