The New Wilders

Almanzo Wilder was born and raised near Malone NY, 75 miles from where I sit today. In 1879, he moved with his brother and sister to what was then called the Dakota Territories and took up residence in what is today De Smet SD. It was there that he met one Laura Ingalls (ten years his junior), and in August 1885 (just two days shy of 90 years before I entered planet Earth), the two were married. For her part, Laura moved to De Smet in 1880 with her family, who left Wisconsin in 1869 and moved through Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas before eventually landing in South Dakota. Both families were looking for good places to raise crops and families in the Dakotas.

In 2021, I received an email from a friend, Mary, in South Dakota, telling me of a couple of jobs I might be interested in, in the same office where she worked. I had left my previous job in December, and had been foundering a bit, applying willy nilly to jobs around the country without a great deal of success beyond the initial interviews. But one of these jobs Mary sent me, well… It is impossible to state how much I wanted this job. It was a job I’d been looking for since earning my degree in the field, and now I finally had enough experience under my belt to at least feel I had a shot at it. I applied, even though I had absolutely no intention of moving to South Dakota.

And then a funny thing happened. I got a call for an interview. I did a Zoom meeting with the hiring team and was told they’d ‘be in touch’. Well, been there, done that. I didn’t expect I’d hear much. Until they called and asked me if I’d come to South Dakota for an in person interview, at their expense. I agreed. I mean, I’d never been to South Dakota before. It’d be state 36 checked off the list if nothing else. We got the travel arrangements set up, and I was set to go. Arrival at 9PM Thursday, departure at 6AM Saturday. Quick in and out. If I hated it, I didn’t have to stay.

By now, Mary and I were plotting and cackling about how far this had come and the fact that after being Facebook friends for 10 years, we were actually going to meet in person. This seemed like an elaborate plan to get to meet for free, but sometimes, the best plans go that way.

I got to Pierre, got through the interview process, ran around with Mary, and got home. To be honest, when I was heading home, I was in absolute mental anguish about what to do. I was exhausted, which wasn’t helping clear thinking. But could I REALLY leave my family and friends to move halfway across the country, start somewhere new, and partake in a new culture and new way of living? Could I, the very definition of East Coast liberal elite, make my way in deep red conservative territory?

Maybe it wouldn’t happen. Maybe I’d blown the interview. Maybe they didn’t like me.

But they did.

And five days later, I got the call. Please come to Pierre and work for us.

And what I discovered is, I liked them. And I wanted that job. And I wanted that lifestyle. Sensible. Down to earth. Convenient yet quiet.

But I’m not an island anymore. I have a daughter who has opinions and has a right to having a say in matters. I have a fiance who would be giving up as much as I would be. I gave them travel brochures, showed them pictures, we looked at real estate websites. We took a virtual tour of the school.

We had a family meeting, took a vote. By a vote of 3-0, we agreed. We want the adventure. We want to carve out our own identity as a family, away from anyone who knows our story. We want to create our story, together, one wild day at a time. Are we the new Wilders? I think so. I hope we have their resilience and find happiness where we land.

And so it begins… I’ll share it here.