The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
It's been a while since I have posted for Thankful Tuesday's, but let me assure you there are things day in and day out that deserve more praise and thanks than I could ever write about. Today I would like to spend some discussing motivation and what has led me to the journey I am currently mapping.
If you would have told me in the spring of 2010 that I would be moving to BFE Kansas and starting the most important stepping stone to my career, an irreplaceable experience most could only dream of, I would have quite literally laughed. In your face to be exact.
You see although I always had every intention of a career in the agriculture industry I was raised in a society that deemed agriculture as dead, that there was no room for some random girl to make a livin. Honest. But, let me also tell you that these things were said with love and my best interest in their hearts. The people involved did not view agriculture as it's whole, and the variety of paths you could choose and neither did I. But, determined not to let my dreams die I did not settle and kept pressing on.
I may have gone about this backwards, not going to go college right out of high school, but how do you in your right mind rack up that kind of debt having no idea what you wanted to do only who you wanted to be? Unlike the majority of my peer group I opted out of being riddled with debt (and am actually on my way to being completely debt free) by working and then figuring out exactly what type of education I wanted to spend MY money on!
I started out at the very bottom, a harvest time scale girl. Amazingly I LOVED this job and every harvest a part of me wishes I could be back out there chatting up the locals as they delivered their hard earned grains. My love for this position translated into above average work ethic and job satisfaction so the company I was with decided to take me on full time at the main mill, which for Ohio is a pretty good sized operation. But, with this move I lost my motivation when I was trapped in an office all day never seeing anyone besides my co-workers and the glare of a computer screen. I wanted something more than to be a pencil pushing number cruncher. I wanted a career not a job. I wanted to be apart of something bigger than me and to know that at the end of the day the team I was working with was effecting peoples lives positively in the form of agriculture!
I stuck it out though, and gleaned as much knowledge as they were willing to give me. Unfortunately some company's have no desire to grow certain positions, all they want is for you to come to work each day follow the rules and go home. You know that's fine if that's what your looking for but at that point in my life I was yearning for more.
One day I was having an issue contacting one of our DDG (dried distillers grains) trucking company's and went to google the main office number when God intervened. I happened to click on a link with the exact name I was looking for but it was different, it was a Agriculture job placement agency based out of Kansas City. I immediately got out of the site in fear of my manager somehow finding out I was on a job hunting site even if it was by complete accident (or divine intervention as I like to see it.) All week long it tugged and tugged at me I looked at the site again, none of the job listings seemed like they would be a fit for me. I sucked it up and spent the next weekend perfecting my job resume for a what the heck all they can do is tell me no, and sent it in.
With strong prayer, faith and a stroke of good luck I stumbled upon my current company where I was offered a job as a risk manager. Yep me. A lil ole farmers daughter from southwest Ohio and they wanted ME. :) makes me smile and happy all over just remembering that call!
I guess the point is I was motivated by all the negative commentary on my life decisions that other people thought would get me no where. If I wouldn't have followed that yearning God placed in my soul from the time I was a very young girl I would have missed the inspiration to reach out and discover a world I had no idea existed. If your reading this don't give up on your dreams there is a reason your passionate about certain things and sometimes all you have to do is let go and enjoy the ride.
I know that this kind of jumped all over the place and there are so many other amazing details to this story that I left out, but I guess you'll have to wait for my book in ohhhh say 20ish years, you know once I've taken the cattle industry by storm.
I am thankful for the career path I have been given through hard work and determination to prove that my dreams WILL become reality.
Love to you all,
