"And here are your new best friends..."

Here's the story...of 25 strangers...who are on a bus headed out to where there was little cell phone service and scarce wi-fi. Who would do such a thing?! :) We would. Leadership Osceola headed out to the FFA Leadership Center on Friday 2/18 to learn more than just a thing or two about eachother, but more about ourselves.

 We kicked off the day with breakfast and coffee. I became fond of the creamer they used in the coffee that weekend. I'm not sure what it was, or that I want to know how many calories it had, but it was delish! Oh...and so were the bagels, fruit and danishes! :) After some catching up, enters the famous Dr. Peppers. Although with the instructions he gave, I'm not sure I was ready to "trust the Dr." Thats Larry down there.

He wrote a simulation "game" called SIMSOC. I really cannot say much except that I was Red, and for those of you who know, I loved and hated it all in the same. I love PB&J. Definitely learned how each part was important in making the engine run and at the end of the day, I was super grateful for the life I have. That dolphin puzzle...I don't even want to talk about it. :)

Moving on...after a long day, we headed back to our amazing accomodations that were newly renovated and super cozy where I roomed with Marvelous Mary. She is pretty darn Marvelous and has a contagious laugh that I love. After we set our bags down, we grabbed a drink and headed down to the dock where we saw this incredible view...talk about a great way to end a long day!

The bell rang for dinner...now, for my cattlemen out there, I was really excited when I turned the corner to find an entire tray of STEAK! Anyone who's anyone knows that if you're eating a grilled piece of beef from the FFA, it's gotta be good. Not to mention the scalloped potatoes and broccoli. :) By days end, I was fat and happy!

For dessert, we walked down a quick trail to a bonfire where there were s'mores supplies. I'm in! I went for the low-carb version which is marshmallow only though. Gotta keep my girlish figure, you know. For those in the class, I just want to be clear that the "i's" were the last ones at the bonfire! Shocking, I know. :)

 

So the next morning we get up and well...Mary and I decided we wanted to sleep in. Apparently everyone was worried about us when we got to breakfast, but Mary and I, we were not worried at all. We shot outta bed just in time to grab a quick bite to eat and get ready for the day's activities. And well, again, I can't tell you much except that we took a personality test and it got me right on the head. It labeled me right in the first paragraph as "..a critical thinker, she may have the ability to take creative ideas and develop them into practical applications." :) A few other keynotes were "...seeks quality results." and "When approaching a problem, Kelly tends to analyze all the available data before reaching a decision." Totally designer/marketing personality! There is this whole essay about me that is entirely true and only written on a few answered questions. The best part of this activity was that at the end, they grouped you up with other people like you and asked you to make a poster about your "type". And I didn't have to make the poster!! Normally, I'm the first person nominated. It was a nice break from the norm and Christy did a great job jumping right in to draw it...even though I wanted to sketch ideas and think it out first (see above statement)...they didn't hold it against me. You see, I was not 100% their classification, but had tendencies of it. Below is a great photo of me and Mary...or at least her pretty french braid and my leg! Haha! :)

After that, we headed out for some really great leadership activities that were right up my alley. We were given these discs that are on the ground, similar to the bases you used in kickball when you were younger and were told out of the 30something we had that we had to step on them and no one in our group of 11 could touch the ground. Oh, and did I mention that when we stepped on the discs, we had to sing our favorite nursery rhyme before we were allowed to touch the ground? We immediately tried to think of the shortest one. Yeah, we're pretty brilliant we know... :) So obviously...we did that. Some people were even using 3 or 4 so that they didn't need to stand on our tippy toes. As the game moved on, we were challenged to use as little discs as possible to complete the same task. Well...let's just say...I was tickled, Mary's hair was pulled and by the end of it, we looked like this...

I think this is when I got tickled (ahem BUD!)

Point being, that when we had limited resources, we had no choice but to pull together and depend on one another to hold us up. Not just in a literal sense, but in a community, there is power in one person, but that one person cannot accomplish it all alone. Collaboration is key. We didn't exclude anyone's idea without trying it because you just never knew what was going to work and it didn't hurt to try. I can't tell you how many we got down to because the other groups might be jealous, but we were pretty amazing. GO GROUP OSCEOLA!

Next stop was the ropes course where I personally got to demolish a fear of mine. In 2002 when we did a similar course in Teen Leadership, I was able to put on a harness which I thought was pretty great and then I put two feet on the posts for a photo. I was a little aprehensive this time considering, I am a little less mobile than I'd like to be and I also watch way to much television and I know what could happen to me on these courses! But I had a great team of folks rooting me on. So much in fact that I not only climbed to a 3rd post...and a 4th...before I knew it, I was in the middle of a tight rope...hanging on for dear life!!! But hey, I got there. Must have been my Gator spotter Mark! :) I was super proud of myself for not chickening out.

All in all, I learned so much about myself and my classmates, now my new friends. I think having a retreat like this helped me to be more in tune with myself as a leader while getting to see other people's leadership styles. I was grateful for a group of people who hardly knew me that was willing to support me in time of need, hold me up when I had little to give and root me on to killing my fear of heights.

Here's to being Donna's favorite class! :)

Kelly

And so it begins...

So...this is it I guess. My first entry! I'm excited to share my Leadership journey with whoever is lucky enough to get this top secret link...ok...so its all over my Facebook page...but whatever... :) Here we go!

For those of you who don't know, I'm a graphic designer, Gator grad, new housewife and friend who, through deep family roots in this place we call home, has been instilled with a deep sense of community. I've always been passionate about my hometown. How can you not give back to something that has taught you everything. Because I feel this way, I take every opportunity I can to learn, share and educate people who might not know just how really great it is to be a resident/business owner in Osceola County. I know I know...you thought we just host the biggest Rodeo east of the Mississippi River and all we do is raise cows...but I assure you, it is MUCH more than that. The best part of sharing this with you is to get the occasional "Oh thats cool." or "I didn't know that!", and my job is done. So my post college, community heart-throbbing nerdiness begins...

To start it off, in 2002 I was chosen among Osceola teens to be apart of Teen Leadership, a leadership program that explains the forwards, backwards, behind the scenes and under the river ways that a county is run and how to take that information and apply to your life. In January 2011, I was chosen and supported by my company to attend a popular program put on by Community Vision called Leadership Osceola, and be a part of the 2011 class. Business professionals soon to become close friends gather every other week to participate in themed days to gain a better perspective of what it takes to not just run a county, but how to be a contributing part of one. I can say now, that I'm stoked about the opportunity to go through the process ten years later and see how much I've changed...(eek. that was a long time ago!) Some classmates will tell you that this gives me some sort of crazy unfair advantage, but I assure you, I was a far different person ten years ago (and braver too!). :)

So here it is...I've been talking about this for such a long time and finally, I dove in. I had the idea to start a blog about my journey with the hopes that it might give some insight to employers and even help recruit some new alumni.

Seeing as the orientation was a week ago and we've already had our retreat and first class, it looks like I'm a little behind... Just so you know upfront, I don't plan on including too many details of the actual day's activities, just in case at the end of this, the blog convinces you to take it yourself. What I do want to share are the things that surprise even me, a true Osceola cracker. Things that even people who were born and raised here don't even know....and yes, I've already learned a few! Also maybe I'll throw in a few of those things people call "life lessons" which are always good for the soul.


One more thing, I'm a conversational writer (if you didn't gather that already), in that, I am trying to create a dialog here, not wow you with all this fancy lingo no one understands. So, with that, let's go!

I'll be blogging about the retreat tomorrow so stay tuned! :)

Kelly