I stood waiting...looking...watching the luggage belt move around and around in the Denver airport. Where was my suitcase? Filled with Tri Delta Pathways officer notebooks (all of them!), supplies, chapter notes and resources, and a small album of pictures; the suitcase never appeared. I walked over to the baggage claim customer service office to declare my Tri Delta suitcase missing. How would I ever conduct my chapter visits without these essential materials?Of course, as a field consultant of the late '90s, I wasn't equipped with a cell phone, iPhone, slick laptop, printer, or much in the way of anything tech-savvy other than my own AOL email address. What did I do next? I found a payphone and pulled out my trusty Tri Delta phone card, dialed into the shared voicemail account to commiserate by voice message with my fellow field consultants and our director of chapter services. A few weeks later I received some new materials to support my last few visits and wind down my year of traveling. I never received my Tri Delta suitcase (which can only mean that someone found quite a surprise when they opened that black bag to find it loaded with Pathways notebooks!).
Little did I know losing my suitcase - as traumatic an event as it seemed at the time - was one of many situations as a Tri Delta field consultant that would forever shape my personal and professional life experience. What does losing a suitcase have to do with professional development, you ask? How could I consider a lost bag to be a turning point in my personal life?
I learned very quickly that I had to be resilient.
I had to be resourceful.
I had to figure out how to move forward with the knowledge and experience I had gained over the last six months and apply those tidbits, pronto! I had chapter members waiting at passenger pick-up; no time for tears and certainly no turning back.
Generations of women have traveled as field consultants, field representatives, or field secretaries over the decades. Each of us has been shaped by our experience on the road, interacting with collegians in chapter settings or individual officer meetings. We have been moved by chapter success, frustrated by chapter failure, and we have been connected to one another by a single, unique experience that is hard to explain to anyone who asks: "What does this mean on your resume?"
For me, spending 1998-1999 on the road with Kimberlee, Robyn, Heather, Becky, Jenny and Stephanie was one experience that not only changed me and grounded me personally, but gave me the confidence, resilience and patience that I needed to move into my adult life. I am forever grateful to Tri Delta and the resources of the Fraternity that supported my ability to have a life-changing experience.
The Center for Living, Learning and Leading is currently sponsoring a 'FC Challenge,' as a way for all field consultants to support the educational programs of the Fraternity. Programs that directly and individually impact our members - our sisters. Will you join with me and make a $125 contribution to The Center in honor of the 125th anniversary of the founding of Delta Delta Delta?
Truth be told: I still look for a small black suitcase each time I walk through the Denver airport in the hope it will one day reappear. However, I know full well that its loss was my gain: my gain of an experience that forever shaped my understanding of what it means to 'develop a stronger and more womanly character.'
Loyally,
Alison Ream Griffin, Southern Methodist
Executive Board Member
Field Consultant, 1998-1999
