By Sheridan Visser
Whether you are moving to a new area or taking on new endeavors, I want to share with you a tidbit of hope and inspiration. AKA: I want to let others learn from my mistakes.
My name is Sheridan. I come from a land far, far away called Amarillo, Texas. I lived there my whole life until I ran into a North Dakota cowboy at a dance hall in Amarillo. He asked me to dance. And then he asked again, and again, and again. Austin and I got married in June of 2017 and will continue this dance together forever. However, now our lives consist of a whole different kind of dance called ranching. We currently run a commercial herd of almost 200 cows, 100 meat goats and a handful of feeder pigs and chickens.
I haven’t always been a rancher. There is farming and ranching in my family’s history and within extended family. However, I grew up on a 20-acre place just outside of Amarillo. I dabbled in agriculture through 4-H and FFA and got a degree in agriculture, but I hadn’t grown up directly involved with production agriculture. I came into ranching because it has been Austin’s dream his whole life. I fell in love with his vision and his passion for it and it quickly became my own passion as well.
Now to say I fell right on board with the dream of ranching makes it sound easy. This major life change and move across the country far away from everything I knew and loved was by no means easy. But it is where many life lessons began. The most impactful one being:
~BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED~
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” Lao Tzu
I moved to North Dakota in December of 2016 right in the middle of what some of the locals say was one of the worst blizzards they had ever seen. This kicked off a long and difficult adjustment period. Trust me when I say that this newfound mindset was not easily obtained.
It was after months of struggling with depression and negative mental health that I came to this realization. I was the only one who had the power to choose to be happy and prosperous here. No amount of complaining or comparing to my previous life in Texas was going to make North Dakota any warmer or my family any closer. I was the only one missing out on the opportunities around me and the beauty that surrounded me because I was comparing it to everything I knew before.
I made a promise to myself then that I was going to bloom wherever I was planted. That I would enjoy the life I was living instead of imagining and comparing it to what could be. And big things happened once I accepted this truth.
First, I found my tribe. I opened up more and found my new community of people. Another young ranch couple, Haley and Max Robison, have become family to us and we are blessed to have so many memories and adventures we get to share as two young, ranching couples. It is so important to find genuine friends to share your life with.
Second, I decided to get involved in the community and expand my network. I joined the local fire department and took Emergency First Responder training. Thanks to Haley, I jumped headfirst into North Dakota Farm Bureau and became the county secretary and immersed myself into the statewide activities. This was a breath of fresh air. It is human nature to want to be a part of something bigger. And I encourage anyone struggling with finding their purpose to go out and get involved in something bigger than yourself. It changes you.
Sheridan is the District 9 representative on the NDFB Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee.