Adafruit_RGB_LCD SHIELD FINITE STATE MACHINE PROJ

I want to put in the work myself before saying one thing or another but this could be what I need to get around enum and multiple states along with its own digital read method as seen in the dogbowl code.

I am going to attempt to implement this into the adafruit RGBLCD library example code I have for sure. The only thing I'm wondering off the top of my head is where the comment
//Switch to new phrase is
My thought process is to call a method outside of the local "if" brackets there where you have that comment, but still stay inside the larger void loop function in order to do this I have code that is like:

Switchtonewphrase()   //this is inside the larger loop function
{
int a = 0;
lcd.clear()j;

if (int a=0){
// insert here a statement to start lcd at the (0,0) coord i know what it is
// the lcd.printline for the 1st row
// the lcd.printline for the 2nd row

}
a= a+1;  //increment here AFTER ALL STATEMENTS TO CHECK HOW MANY a ITERATIONS
}

//then have more if statements to satistfy a+1 increments?  will this allow for cycling of the phrase //for every 4 seconds?



//I have a lot of work to do but need to try some more things.