Cortney Zimmerman – The Courage to Live Life

This is Cortney Zimmerman's 2022 retiring address as 2021-22 National FFA Central Region Vice President, titled "The Courage to Live Life." Using the Serenity Prayer displayed in her family kitchen as a framework, she reflects on moments she couldn't change—a fall in a creek, a second-place show, a pandemic graduation, a collapsed livestock shed—and urges members to respond with acceptance, courage, and wisdom rather than asking "why me?" She honors her late father, an ag teacher and farmer who continued investing in students and family while battling stage 4 cancer, as proof that life doesn't happen to you but for you.