Langreck: Never say never

Over the years, I have only seen one or two inaugurations on the television, but I recently had the opportunity to watch the livestream of the 2021 Indiana Inauguration.

One of the reasons that I decided to watch the event was due to who was the master of ceremonies: Julia Hamblen, who is currently serving as the Indiana FFA president.

Hamblen did an amazing job during the ceremony, and in my opinion, everything went flawless. There was a special moment, in particular, right after Gov. Eric Holcomb was inaugurated into office.

The first words he spoke dealt with the strength of Indiana over the course of 2020, relating the ability of Hoosiers to overcome any obstacle, including Hamblen, who grew up with a speech impediment.

Hamblin didn’t let her speech impediment slow her down over the years. It actually made her work harder.

Instead of hiding behind her impediment and using it as a crutch, she worked to overcome it and even won the Indiana FFA public speaking contest and advanced to the national contest.

Just like Hamblin overcame her speech problem, Holcomb said, Indiana can overcome anything.