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A Small-Town Farmer’s Daughter


This essay is from a finalist for the 2019 Student Loan Planner® Scholarship.

Deidrie

“Drive down this row, turn around, drive up the next row, turn back around, then repeat seventy more times. Here are the radio controls while you’re here for the rest of the day.”

These were the instructions for my first summer job on the family farm: driving the tractor to cut the wheat fields. While monotonous, this simple task was a crucial component of my father’s entire year of profits.

He showed me the importance of details when running a business, from handling money appropriately to steering through unexpected obstacles. I learned how rewarding life can be in a community surrounded by family and friends.

I have carried this knowledge while budgeting student loans, navigating through optometry school, and preparing for my future in optometry as a private practice owner.

Being Part of a Community

Growing up in a small town, I was surrounded by my family, the farmland, and the community. I never knew what it felt like to be in a big city, but I knew every person in my high school and most of their parents.

This small community was at every sports game and fundraiser, and they were available to help a neighbor whenever necessary. Most of them were also local farmers, and I watched as my dad interacted with this tight-knit community every day.

As a farmer running his own business, my dad was also a board member on multiple committees and a volunteer ambulance driver. I watched him grind through 18-hour workdays that ended in ambulance calls in the middle of the night, days spent tending to a sick calf and evenings with a laptop analyzing dozens of Excel sheets outlying the month’s expenses and profits.

Owning a business is difficult and time-consuming. Sacrifices are made to ensure success, and sometimes those sacrifices are more than you bargained for in life. Yet, I have seen first-hand how rewarding and wonderful it can all be.

My profession as an optometrist won’t just be that, it will also be of a business-owner. It is a scary, but an unbelievably exciting job at the same time.

I want to be part of a community that prides itself on their small-town feel, and I want to offer my services in the best way I know through vision care. I want to provide glasses to my pediatric patients who are struggling to read, watch them grow up, buy rolls of wrapping paper for their team fundraisers, then one day see them bring their own kids in for their first exams.

A successful business is not successful without loyal patients, patients that enjoy returning to my clinic each year for their exams.

Bringing New Services to a Small Town

I plan on bringing specialty services to my practice to enhance the business and welcome a variety of clientele. My interests lie in specialty contact lenses and dry eye services. I want to offer dry eye treatment and management services to a community that may have never had the opportunity to use before.

One management plan may be scleral contact lenses, and I am eager to incorporate these types of specialty lenses into the practice to help my patients. I hope to also use different contact lens modalities to help children with myopia, or nearsightedness.

With the myopia epidemic on the rise, I want to help young children in the community slow down their myopia progression.

I have kept this thought in mind throughout my journey in optometry school. I have stressed, cried, laughed, and struggled so that I could one day provide premium vision care.

Sacrifices were made, and I know there will be many more in the future. Like my father, I will push through those obstacles and fight for my dreams.

I will spend evenings analyzing Excel sheets of business expenses and profits, spend hours on the phone with financial advisors and loan servicers, and then feel rewarded when I see my name on the door of my business.

Money Philosophies to Live By

During my childhood, I watched my dad adjust the budgets of both the farm business and our family (with the help of my mother of course). I have had numerous years to analyze spending habits, listen to their advice, and make my own mistakes.

In that time, I have accumulated what I think are the best money philosophies from two of the most successful people that I know:

  1. Money is just money. While it may disappear in a flash, you will always make more. There are many other important things than life, and it should not consume your everyday living.
  2. Purchase with money that you have at that moment, not borrow or spend invisible money. Credit cards have perks, but your balance should not be more than what you currently have in your bank account.
  3. There will be times that require borrowing, such as a college education or mortgage. You are benefiting your future. Do not stress about it; keep a clear head and borrow wisely.
  4. Simple expenses can add up. Chipotle for lunch is a reward, not a weekly habit.
  5. Spend wisely, save more, then reward yourself. No one wants to sit at home every weekend. Go out for dinner and vacation with your partner to Mexico.

These five philosophies have outlined my approach with regard to budgeting money and loans.

Throughout optometry school, I have spent hours creating monthly budgets and tracking expenses. I determined how much of each student loan I should take out for living and school expenses, and I allowed myself to have funds for spending quality time with family and friends.

When I think about loans and money, I think about how I have grown in pursuit of my dreams. From a small-town farmer’s daughter to an optometry student to a future doctor.

I will continue to follow my philosophies on money: Take great care when deciding to spend or save, but don’t let it consume you or cause your mind trouble. Be cautious, but reward yourself when it’s appropriate. Most importantly, enjoy your life with the people who surround you, and have fun!

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Comments

  1. Linda Steele October 15, 2019 at 9:41 PM
    Reply

    This small town farmer’s daughter is wise beyond her years. I work with scholarship applications and also an a scholarship award decision maker. This is precisely the type of young lady that will benefit herself, and in the future, everyone she touches.

  2. Marcia October 16, 2019 at 1:19 AM
    Reply

    This is a young woman who is striving to do her best for herself, her family and her community. A clear headed, straight thinking young woman who will go a long way and deserves all the help she can get to follow her dream.

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