Lost luggage and long meetings

It got lost... again. After all the airfare I have paid these past 12 months and frankly, past 9 years or so I have been flying, you would think I would know better. I consider myself an experienced flier (no, I am not yet TSA Pre-Check certified but I'm sure later on in life, I'll make the investment). Sunday was not a good example of my flying prowess. I checked my bag when I should not have and it got left behind.

I had been waiting for my boarding group in Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The guest services worker asked if anyone was willing to "complementary check" their bag. Since I was not in a hurry with a layover in Dallas and not arriving to Grand Island, Neb. until about 10 p.m., I figured why not. They were covering the costs and it was one less bag to lug around in addition to my exceedingly full backpack, securing two laptop computers, an iPad and camera case with my body and two lenses. The least I could do was provide more overhead bin space for other travelers and continue my voyage back to Nebraska after a nice holiday hiatus. As I handed the clerk my ticket and made my way down the jet bridge, it didn't occur to me that my bag would not get moved from its location.

Keep on keeping on in '15

Life is unexpected. It's hard to believe we have already crossed the bridge to a new year, filled with new adventures, challenges and excitement! Sometimes, there is so much hype about starting a "new year" with "new resolutions" that we forget to acknowledge what unexpected happened in the year prior. Were your goals accomplished? Did you make new friendships? Did you lose old ones? For myself, I can only create new "resolutions" if I know what results I had the year before.

Here are my results from 2014:

No longer a trainee; soon to be a Nebraska Cornhusker.

Sometimes, I question where time goes. It seems like yesterday when I first received my offer as a Developmental Sales Representative (DSR) with Syngenta. Almost exactly one year ago from today, I accepted to start a new adventure in agricultural sales. My spring semester at Ohio State accelerated just as quickly and June 16th was upon me in an instant.

From June to now, I have learn many things. One of the most important concepts I grasped has been how to continue learning. I had the opportunity to not just work in Ohio and Indiana, but also travel the country to some of Syngenta's other facilities in North Carolina, Minnesota, and Tennessee. The group of 21 DSRs have been "drinking from a fire hose" these past few months to understand not just the company and processes behind our innovations, but how our retail customers and local growers are implementing them. The biggest obstacle I faced was feeling I wasn't learning enough as quickly as I needed to be.