So I am not going to be a dairy farmer... at least for now.

When you were litte, what or who did you want to be? What kept you up at night, too busy dreaming to sleep?

Now take a moment, did you accomplish that dream? Are you that person? Are you still dreaming?

"Flicka" came out when I was in 6th grade. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it. It's the story of a girl, who lives on a horse ranch and falls in love with this wild horse. (There's more to the story so here is a link to IMDb for more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434215/.)

I saw this movie and that is what I wanted (only I wanted cattle, not horses). I wanted beautiful scenery, a beautiful man (a cowboy of course), beautiful cattle, a couple beautiful horses and beautiful sunrises. I drempt of minimal people, minimal profits, and idealy minimal snakes. But somewhere along the way, the world stepped in. I thought of careers that were more financially fit, more sensible, more stable, more... someone else.

Then I found the dairy industry. It was a job where I could have beautiful cattle and in some cases beautiful scenery. And I love dairy, I do, don't get me wrong, but... well, it's hard to explain, even to those closest to me. (For the sake of this blog post, I will not go into the details, that will be for another time.)

When I graduated high school, my friends would always joke that I was going to head off to South Dakota, find my cowboy who had a ranch, and never come back. I would laugh and say no I'll be on a dairy, but in the back of my mind, I would think back to Flicka.

Mobridge, SD. Not far from McLaughlin

No, life is never as glamorous as in the movies, but growing up, I spent my days in the pasture with our beef cows. It was my happy place. So started in Janurary of 2017, after my December graduation from South Dakota State University with degrees in Dairy Production and Speech Communication and an Animal Science minor, Nick and I will be heading to McLaughlin, South Dakota. We will both be ranch hands for a family owned ranch. I will spend most of my days with the cows, Nick with the corn and some days with each other.

McLaughlin, SD

So, no, I am not going to be a dairy farmer... at least not for now. I am young and alive and I would not be me if I never gave my dreams a try.

The Great Graduation Dilemma

What are you doing after you graduate? The million dollar question for any college senior.

When I entered college, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I have figured out my calling... many times, then decided it was something else once again.

I graduate in 3 months 9 days 1 hour and 51 minutes and if you asked me today, where I see myself in 5 years, I can tell you one thing. I'll be doing something.

I currently have this internal battle going on. Part of me wants to venture out into the unknown, the uninhabited, God's Country (because no one else wants to live there). I want to set my worrying soul free on the back of a horse, surrounded by cattle. Wake up before the sun, grab my coffee and head out to feed the world in a place the world has never seen. I want to go to bed after the sun has set, the crickets and fireflies have come alive, and the days work is complete. I want to bundle up and trudge through deep snow just to ensure my animals are fed and happy. I want to spend my days using my hands, in order to let my creative mind free to sit down a write each night.

But then I have this other part of me. The part that wants to study hard and learn more every chance I can get. The one that wants to achieve enough to teach others and encourage them to never give up on their dreams. The one that wants to find the answers to the questions I have been asking for years through hours, days, weeks, months, and years of research. The one that wants to feed the world by providing farmers with more efficient, environmentally friendly, and animal centered ways of farming. The one that wants to change the world and maybe even run for office someday.

So where I will be in just over 3 months, I can't tell you. Currently, I am looking at pursuing both avenues, waiting for the right door to open. And I know that God has a plan, he just has not shared it with me yet.