The other day, I went on a run and decided I needed a change of scenery. North of our apartments are miles of farmland I love driving by, so I decided to run those old roads. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but in the past three years, I have been around that lifestyle quite a bit. I can haul hay, drive a tractor, I have helped rescue a calf and catch a few others (and named one of them Taxi), I can feed the cows, and the real winner: sometimes I don’t freak out when I step in manure (I know, leaps and bounds).

Just north of campus and the apartments, you can find yourself in never-ending sections full of crops, cattle and salt of the earth farmers who make you imagine all of the knowledge and stories you would gather with just a one hour conversation over a cup of coffee with them. Honestly, farmers are magicians. Think about it. They sustain the world’s population by growing a seed. Out here, there are some of the prettiest fields of winter wheat, and if I had to pick three of my favorite Oklahoma sights, they would be canola fields, cotton fields when the bolls split and cows on winter wheat. Running out there by fields of green, I wasn’t thinking about the things that were wrong with the world or where my life was going to be in a year. I found joy in the little things again. I found joy remembering the times Mr. H taught me something new and all of the “Farm Fun Facts” when we are in the truck. I wasn't born into a life of hay and tractors and fields and cows, but I love that my life has turned into tractors, hay bales, trucks, ponds, livestock and fields, even if that means that there is always something to be done, always a new truck being bought and always something that is breaking down. I love these people with their sweet accents and gritty, hard working souls.

Thank you, Oklahoma, for being a simple reminder of working for your worth and not stopping until you find success. The farmers and ranchers I have been lucky enough to meet are some of the best people I have ever known. They have hearts of gold that truly care about people and how to make someone else’s life as good as they can. Thank you for investing time and energy into a younger generation. Thank you for creating a scenery so good, one glance can remind you what is so good about life.