Cyndi's Two Cents

Invest in time with friends

Commentary.

A little over seven years ago at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Foundation Auction, I joined with a small group of women to bid on a week-end stay at the lake home of one of our colleagues. That get-away has become an annual and important part of the summer for each of us.

Although summertime schedules can be tricky to maneuver, the core group of us who had the winning bid those few years ago typically make the investment annually and try our best to make it to “Lake Girls Week-end” at the Lake of the Ozarks.   We travel from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, Florida, Tennessee, Kansas and Missouri to spend a relaxing week-end together. We range in age from 30 to 59, work in the agriculture industry, and most of us have skin in the game in production agriculture. Many of us have known each other for decades.

We have 3 rules that were made to be broken: No make-up.  No pictures go on Facebook unless they are approved by those in the shot.  What happens at the lake stays at the lake.  The truth is most of us are comfortable enough with ourselves at this time in our lives that none will get a nose out of joint if someone bends or breaks a rule or 3.

We talk about all of the things that friends and family are told not to talk about, including politics and religion.  Although none of us are afraid to voice our opinions (and believe me, we all have opinions) we are laser-focused listeners and questioners as well.  Although we all want what is best for agriculture and our country, we are not in total agreement and that makes for a healthy and enlightening discussion.

We talk about everything from GMO labeling to which airlines have the most comfortable seats; from why we love to shop at Aldi to which lawmakers on capitol hill are the most accessible; from how we keep deer, rabbits, raccoons, armadillos and possums out of our gardens to the best options for measuring digital analytics.

Most of us are or have been agricultural journalists.  I have traveled through Germany, China, Japan, Russia, Jordan, Mexico and Belgium with some of these women, asking questions and collecting information to paint the picture with words and sound for our farmer-listeners and readers back in the Heartland of the United States.  We have grown up together in the agriculture industry.

One of the biggest compliments I receive is when I am told that no matter where I go or what I do with my career, I am still, in my heart, just a farm girl from Scott County, Illinois.  I think that sentiment is what drew many of my “Lake Girls” friends together.  We haven’t forgotten where our journeys began.  We haven’t forgotten the sacrifices our parents and their parents before them made.  It’s important to have friends to support us on our way, through droughts as well as bumper harvests.