LeadAR National Study Tour—Day 6

by Matthew Magdefrau, video production specialist, Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation - September 26, 2025

Leadership in the Layover

When I first found out I’d be in charge of writing the blog post for our travel day, I figured it would be the easiest assignment yet. After all, what can you really say about airports? We went to the airport. We flew home. The end. Not exactly Pulitzer material. But of course, life refuses to play it that simple. Instead, it decided to deliver one final plot twist, a perfect epilogue to our week in Washington, D.C. 

Our class hails from across the state, and while some routed home through Shreveport or XNA without incident, those of us flying through Little Rock were treated to an extra lesson in patience and perspective. The plan was simple: a quick lunch layover in Dallas. The reality? A major telecommunications outage that grounded planes and sent timetables from green to yellow faster than you can say delayed. Air traffic control couldn’t talk to planes in the air, a nightmare scenario, and suddenly the possibility of an unplanned overnight in Dallas loomed large.

After a week of back-to-back meetings, miles of walking, and brains full of policy talk, the thought of sleeping on an airport floor nearly broke us. But if D.C. taught us anything, it was flexibility. And here it was again, staring us down in a crowded terminal: setbacks don’t have to sink you, they can shape you.

That’s when it clicked. Leadership lessons don’t just happen in congressional offices or formal workshops. Sometimes, they happen in the most ordinary of places: in a crowded terminal, with tired classmates, waiting on a blinking flight board. We had no control over the outage, but we did have control over our response. And that response, choosing patience, humor, and teamwork, it was leadership in action.

So, we made the best of it. Some of us caught up on neglected emails. Others bonded over bad snacks and shared exhaustion. What first felt like a crisis slowly revealed itself as an unexpected gift, a reminder that true leadership often begins with shared struggle. Together we searched for solutions, should we drive, rebook, find another route? In the process we discovered that the real value wasn’t just in getting home, but in how we faced the challenge together as a team.

And then, at last, a break in the endless carousel of changing flight times: 8:30 p.m. stuck. We boarded, took off, and touched down in Little Rock just before 11 p.m. Safe, tired, but together.

Meanwhile, our friends to the north and south made it home without issue. But I’d argue we got something extra, not just a delayed flight, but a shared experience that capped our week with one last, ordinary-yet-extraordinary lesson.

If I were to craft a final thought on our National Study Tour to Washington, D.C., it would be this: we began the journey as a group of individuals just starting to know one another, and we returned as a team ready to face the challenges that lay ahead of us.

So watch out, Arkansas. Class 21 is wheels down, ready for takeoff.