Revelations of a reluctant leader

Uh-oh.

I’ve been mistaken for a leader.

I took a worthier candidate’s spot.

The VALOR selection committee confused me for someone with real leadership potential.

My mind was racing at Class VII’s orientation in Blacksburg in late September, when I realized I’d never truly contemplated the elements of leadership, much less envisioned myself as one.

Working as a community journalist since 2007, I’ve observed leaders functioning at all levels. Good ones. Terrible ones. Complicated-yet-effective ones. Some were smart and magnanimous. Others were hostage to ego. I studied those roles objectively. I could never be a leader.

But what if I could? Or what if I already am?

I joined 15 of my new VALOR cohorts in digging deep for the answer to this question I’d never sincerely pondered. Experts in leadership development helped us examine the fundamentals of identity. We mapped our narratives, found the words to describe our leadership styles, and ascertained our natural tendencies toward adaptability or innovation.

I always was the inattentive kid who couldn’t sit still or maintain focus on uninspiring subjects. If it’s not fun, fascinating, artistic or aesthetic, it won’t hold my attention long. Pursuit of stimulation has been a lifelong defect.

But what if those traits are an asset in nurturing my style as a playful, energetic leader?

Before traveling with VALOR to far-flung ag operations and meeting with the world’s foremost minds at home and abroad through the next two years, we need to understand how we got here. In a series of reflective exercises, I realized a couple things:
1) My playful disposition is a tool instead of an obstacle in developing my identity as a spirited leader.
2) This fellowship is an outside investment in my potential. I’m not entitled to it, but I am worthy of it.
3) The low points in my life were just opportunities for redemption.
4) The odd timeline that once made me an outlier—urban childhood in Los Angeles, suburban coming-of-age in Alabama and career established in the rural South—is a winding yet distinctive path that prepared me for this moment.

About me: I’m a senior writer and photographer with Virginia Farm Bureau who found a home in agriculture after a career in local newspaper reporting in Alabama, Mississippi and northern Florida. Now I carry my camera and notebook to diverse farming operations of all sizes and sectors in every county of Virginia. My pictures and words are a mechanism to share the ongoing story of agricultural traditions, innovations, challenges and policies through multiple communications channels.

I am a University of Alabama journalism school graduate, now living in suburban Chesterfield County with my husband, Eric, and two cats. I enjoy a good party; shredding at the gym; nonfiction media; consulting the Reddit hivemind; and using storytelling to understand or explain what motivates us humans.