From a town where the tallest structures are grain silos and “traffic” is caused by a herd of behemoth-like combines, I became a farmer of ambitions. Athena, Oregon, is a pastoral town buried in scintillating waves of golden wheat framed by verdant carpets of alfalfa. It resembles an idyllic countryside straight out of an Andrew Wyeth painting, or even one of those pre-programmed Microsoft screensavers. It’s a picturesque place, but sometimes I find that isolation eclipses it all. Take wheat, for example, that one ubiquitous crop that everyone loves, just like the sports teams at my high school. Of course, like wheat, I understand how influential sports can be to fostering community; in fact, I’m proud to be captain of my year-round swim team. But, my taste buds crave for something more than the staple bread that comes from wheat. I yearned to join a club focused on activities outside the realm of sports. But living out here, those clubs were few; they were an exotic crop yet to be planted in our town. So, I ventured to sow interest in an animation and graphic novel club at my school. Living in a tiny town fostered my hunger for a boundless world. A world where the only limit was the strength of my will and the scope of my imagination. Animation was the perfect outlet for me to live outside the realm of my wheat fields by providing me access to a variety of cultures through unique art styles and storytelling. Hoping that fellow dreamers carried similar desires, I set forth to create a club that could act as our portal to another world. But before I could plant this crop, I had to till and fertilize its sterile soil: I needed to have this club idea approved by the school. Since no interest clubs existed, a process to create one didn’t exist either. Plowing forward, I reached out to the principal in hopes of finding a solution. From then on, I frequented her office more than the typical troublemaker to craft a process to build a recognized club. One meeting we considered club criteria and operating policies, another we discussed club recognition steps and bylaws. Soon enough, after approval from our school district's superintendent, everything was set in place, and all I needed were members. Thankfully, a few supportive friends joined, and together we began hanging posters and advertising the club on the school announcements. Luckily, my desires must have resonated with others because 22% of our class joined the Animation and Graphic Novel Club. With the seed of my idea firmly planted, the challenge lay in nurturing it. We began by fostering community through meetings where we shared our love of animation and graphic novels, as well as, explored foreign cultures through their versions of animation and snacks. Then we expanded. To earn money to buy art supplies and fund a trip to the FanExpo comic convention in Portland, OR, we started collecting recyclable bottles, and I turned my hobby of drawing into a sticker business. Later, the club was commissioned to guide a youth group in creating a mural. When we were awarded a grant from the local library to enrich our school's literary offerings by creating a graphic novel collection, I knew we had grown our club from a small seed into a luscious crop. So, yeah, I became a farmer. I know that wherever my path leads me, I’ll continue sowing the seeds of my dreams, nurturing them into vibrant realities, and watching them flourish on the landscapes of tomorrow.