(upbeat music) (upbeat music fades) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

I'm your host Rob Sharkey.

Do you remember what you would do at age of 18?

'Cause I don't, but I know it really wasn't productive, but we're gonna talk to a farm girl today that is extremely productive.

Paris Van Dyke from Louisville, Illinois.

How you doing, Paris?

- I'm doing great.

How are you, Rob?

- That's fantastic.

You're named after a city?

- Yes.

- Have you ever been there?

- No, I haven't.

I hope to go in the future, but it'll probably be a while.

- There's a Paris, Illinois.

Have you been there?

- I've been there before.

Yeah.

- Okay.

That one might be better because they speak English.

- True.

And it's a lot closer.

- Do you speak French?

- I don't, but I would love to learn.

- I know.

That's a hard.

They like, I don't know how they, I don't know how they do stuff.

- I don't know either.

- You are 19 years old?

- 19 years old.

- Okay.

You grew up on a sheep farm?

- I did, yeah.

- [Rob] Alright, tell me about that.

What was that like?

- Yeah, so growing up in a small town called Louisville, Illinois, I was raised on a sheep farm by my parents, John and Katrina.

And you know, there's a lot of joys and discomforts that come with raising livestock.

There's gonna be a lot of complications along the way, but also a lot of rewards.

And so with that, we raise about 40 ewe lambs and we have those now.

And so we breed them each year and we have those lambs.

We sell them to kids who are in club lamb associations all throughout the state of Illinois.

- [Rob] Club Lamb.

What's that?

- So it's called ICLA.

It's a club lamb association, the Illinois Club Lamb Association.

- It's like a motorcycle gang except with lambs.

- Yeah.

Something like that.

- Yeah.

- And so- - That's cool.

- Every year at the Illinois State Fair, we meet and we have jackpots all throughout the summer.

And then we meet there, we get to show and there's like a whole point system so you can get different plaques and things at the end of the year.

It's really neat and good for kids.

- Showing a sheep, I always thought was, I've never done it.

But I watch it and I always thought it was odd because you can actually, you grab the legs and you- - Yes.

- Make them stand the way they're supposed to.

I used to do the hog thing, you know, where you look weird at the judges.

Yeah.

- You're really down and just trying to get 'em to walk the way you want 'em to.

- It's unusual.

Yeah.

- It is very weird.

- But you would do that?

You're trying to get the lamb to stand a particular way.

- Yeah, I would definitely say, I've shown cattle, I've shown hogs and sheep.

And sheep are the most hands-on animal I would say.

You have to know how to set 'em, how to brace 'em.

And every sheep is made different structurally and having that ability to make them look the best is something you have to work towards and it's hard but it's rewarding.

- Yeah.

They shave the pigs now.

- They do.

Yeah, we do that.

- Did you do that?

- Yeah.

- You shaved them?

- I still do.

So I still show, I have about five pigs I get every year.

And I show about four to five sheep and yeah.

- So you do that, you do that weird staring thing at the judge?

- Oh, I stare 'em down.

It's the show stare.

- I don't get it.

What are you trying to prove with that?

- I feel like it shows that you're concentrated on what you're doing and you have respect for the sport, I would say, it's a sport to me.

And just being able to show them, look people in the eye, like that's the respectful thing to do.

But some people take it too far.

They like make TikToks about kids and their stares.

- You've seen that video that I'm talking about, right?

- Oh yeah.

- That gal's, she's staring through your soul.

- She is.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

You do that?

- Yeah, I wouldn't know.

I don't think to that degree, but- - I wouldn't.

(laughs) I actually follow her on TikTok.

- I do too.

- That's so weird.

So have you had much success showing livestock?

- Yeah, I actually was, I had third bred and owned in pigs two years ago and I had that with my Hereford pig.

And then I've been second in class at the Illinois State Fair a couple times with my sheep and one of my pigs.

And so I've had great success.

I've gone to jackpot shows.

My county fair is always such an exciting time for me.

I love being able to show my livestock and hang out with my friends and family and that's the place I call home and so Clay County- - Clay County?

- Yeah.

- Who's the Clay County Fair Queen this year?

- That's me actually.

(bell rings) Are you testing my skills?

- Well, if you didn't know that one, I'd really begin to wonder.

- I would too.

I've been practicing.

I got the state pageant coming up so I better know, right?

- So how's that work?

You go to a county fair, you win that and then are you automatically in the Miss Illinois?

- Yeah, so with your county fair, once you win that, then you go on to the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen system.

- [Rob] Yeah.

What happens when you win that?

- So if you win that, then you get to represent the year as an agriculture ambassador for the state of Illinois.

You get to go to the state fairs and represent as the queen talking to different people and farmers throughout the state of Illinois and just representing agriculture.

- Is that intimidating for you, to be judged?

- To be judged in a pageant, I would say not.

I feel like if you're confident in yourself and who you are, then it shouldn't be a problem and I have no problem with that, so.

- I don't know the whole pageant world, but I have a feeling that it's kind of changed.

It's more about the here than less about here.

Has that changed?

Is that fair to say?

- I would definitely say that people now view pageants as a way to help girls grow in their communication skills as well as their confidence.

And I think that's where you find beauty, from within and yeah, that's really what they're about.

- Do you mean I could be beautiful too?

- Yeah.

(both laughing) You don't believe me?

- No.

When is the Miss Illinois thing then?

- So that's in January.

It's the weekend of the 18th, so.

- [Rob] Okay.

You nervous?

- No, I'm actually really excited.

I've been practicing a lot and yeah, I'm ready to go.

- Can you bribe the judges, stuff like that?

- No, that's illegal.

(laughs) That's illegal in the pageant system.

- Have you ever went above the maximum speed limit?

- For walking in the pageant?

- No, for driving.

- Oh.

- That's illegal too but yet, it gets done.

- I thought you were meaning like walking on stage, like there was a speed limit for, no.

- Is there?

- I mean, there's definitely a pace you should stick with I would say.

- Do you wear the heels?

- Oh yeah, I got 'em on right now.

These are my county fair queen heels that I wear.

So I wear those for my speech, for my swimsuit, and then I have different ones for my beauty wear and my dress.

- Oh.

Years ago we were on a social media tour and they thought it would be funny to have me race the gal that owned the company in high heels 'cause she always wore that.

- Oh my goodness.

- So they actually found size 13 high heels.

We were in California.

It helped.

I couldn't even stand in 'em, let alone walk in 'em.

I don't know how y'all do it.

- It's definitely hard, but once you learn the skill, you're good to go.

I remember watching the Miss Universe pageant when I was little.

I would stand in my mom's four inch heels in the living room and walk around.

I'd be like, "Miss USA," you know, like all confident and stuff.

Yeah.

That was me.

- You're attending Lakeland College.

What's your major?

- So I'm in the ag transfer program there, which is a great program.

Their ag program is top five in the US.

And so I'm planning on going on to a university and being in ag communications.

- That's dumb.

- It's dumb?

- That's dumb.

I wouldn't do that.

There's no jobs in it.

- Really?

- Yeah.

No, you cannot make a living in ag communications.

- You don't think so?

- I guarantee it.

- My sister is an ag communications major and she's currently working for the Royal over in Kansas City, Kansas.

And she got that job right out of college, so- - She's lying to you.

- Oh, she's pretty great.

She was the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen back a few years ago, so.

- [Rob] Oh!

- She knows what she's talking about I think.

- So you gotta throw down, you have to win now.

- I'm gonna try my best and however the judges take me and I'll just be the best that I can and go with it.

- You know what'll help.

- No, they don't do that.

You gotta win fair and square.

- What do you wanna do with the ag communications degree?

- So I hope to be able to work for a company in ag at some point, but I also love the side of being an entrepreneur.

So I hope to own my own business one day.

I wanna build a barndominium actually and have an event center where I can host sheep shows, different kinds of shows and things.

And then have like markets and just different events and hosting conferences and things like that around my area and just bring a whole new role of that into our community.

- So it would not be like a sale one weekend, a wedding the next?

- It could be, yeah.

That's kind of what I'm thinking.

Just having something new.

I love change and I love being able to switch things up and having different revenues of income and doing all of that stuff just sounds so exciting to me.

And being able to play a part in that and creating that would be awesome.

- Okay.

That's okay.

But radio?

Out.

- Radio out?

- Podcasting, out.

- Really?

- TV, out.

- What do you mean?

- PBS... - (laughs) Well actually- - You don't wanna do any of that stuff.

- I love it.

I love public speaking.

I was in a broadcasting class in high school, we call it the Cardinal Chirp and I was the lead anchor and so I would interview people every week on it, just kind like what we're doing right now.

- That's the problem, any idiot can do it.

Yeah.

They could literally dress up a tree stump and put it here and it'd be better than what I'm doing right now.

- No, you have to be funny.

You have to have a sense of humor.

I think you got that.

- Okay.

So do you know where you want to transfer to?

- I'm not sure about that yet.

I'm hopefully gonna be going on some college visits once we get past the pageant and have a free day to go, so.

- Yeah.

Alright, let's get to the book.

- Yeah.

- You wrote this when you were 18, last year?

- Yes.

- When you were still in high school?

- A senior, yes.

- Okay.

Paris Van Dyke, "Grow In Grit."

So if I read this, what am I gonna learn?

When I read this, what am I gonna learn?

- When you read this.

So whenever you read "Grow in Grit," you're going to learn about how to grow in grit, just that.

And you're gonna learn about the fruit of the spirit each month.

So it's a year long devotional.

Each month you will walk through a new attribute of the fruit of the spirit.

So love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, the list goes on.

- Anger and jealousy.

When did those, is that the sequel?

- No, that's not a part of it.

We're not called to be like that.

(laughs) So whenever you read those stories in there, I have personal stories that talk about how I learned how to love others and how to be the person that I wanted to become.

And so I talk about that in there and how to plant the seed in other people's lives.

And teaching people that no matter what age you are, you are able to plant seeds in others' lives and water that and let it grow and just touch others' lives.

And so I really hope that whoever reads the book is going to not only learn more about themselves, but also relate to me as a reader and being young and understanding that we all go through similar struggles.

I also talk about my life growing up on a sheep farm and how there were joys and discomforts of that agricultural life, but it's so rewarding in the end and I'm so blessed and thankful to be able to have that background that I do and share that with others.

- So this is not just reading, people are supposed to, you give homework to do in your book.

- That's right.

It's not all easy.

So actually, in the first month, I encourage my reader to write a letter to someone who planted a seed in their life.

So you write it, you message them, whatever you do.

And what was so cool is this year I actually received a letter from someone who sent me one from reading my book.

And so they were saying that I had planted a seed in their life.

And just seeing people use it and get things out of it is truly eye-opening and it makes my heart so happy.

And yeah.

- There's lots of scripture in here.

I thought young people, you punks, you yutes, you weren't into the Bible anymore.

- I love the Bible.

I was raised going to church by my parents and I attended a local church camp called Oil Belt Christian Service Camp.

And that's where I connected with God and the people who brought me closer to Him.

And I've been so grateful to have amazing mentors in my life who have poured into me.

Actually, I always knew I wanted to be a writer.

I knew that's what I wanted to do so at a young age I started writing in journals.

Everything that someone would say to me that stuck out or was something that impacted the way that I wanted to live, I wrote it down.

And so by the time I came to write this book in the six month timeframe I had, I had no problem with that because I was given so much good stuff from other people to share and that was a seed that was planted in me.

And so I'm really glad that I got to let that grow.

- So do you think you'll continue to, I don't know, write more like this, evolve or do you have any idea?

- So I'm actually working on two books right now.

- Of course she is.

- So I'm working on one talking about, this is a little sneak peek I guess, but I'm working on one that talks about how I grew up on a sheep farm and just the different impacts of that.

And then I'm also working on one that's a 90 day devotional.

So it's more of you read one page a day and it's just an encouraging, uplifting couple of passages to lift you up.

- Did you do this yourself?

Like the whole publishing and I don't know, putting it all together and stuff like that?

- Yeah, so I went through Amazon Kindle Publishing Company and on there I was so thankful to have a publisher in our community who reached out and helped me through that process.

And because of that, I was able to create the whole design for the cover of the book.

And then I just went on there and put all the information in and it definitely was a learning curve never doing that before and having such a tight schedule to get it all done, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

- So you had someone look over this and say, "Oh, you should do this different"?

- Yes.

- Was that hard?

'Cause you poured your soul into, if I did that and they're like, "Oh, this is really dumb," I'd say, "Well, why don't you go pound sand, this is my book."

- So the great thing about publishing on your own, and I understand I had that publisher who walked me through it, but I wasn't at all judged for the way I did things.

She wanted it to be my words and my vision for the book, I guess you could say.

And so with that, she really was like, if you want it to be that way, it's your book, right?

You get to make it the way you want it to be and the readers who love that, they're gonna read your book and if they don't then that's okay too.

But don't change what you want for your book just because it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

- You're 19 years old, you openly talk about your faith, which a lot of people your age have faith, but you know, they don't want to be uncool, stuff like that.

So what is wrong with you?

Why are you so confident in who you are?

- I find my love and my light in Jesus and that's why I'm confident because I'm not building my life on shaky ground.

You know, if we keep building our lives on things that are just gonna crumble and tear us apart and leave us broken hearted, we're gonna be left broken hearted.

And so I think it's so important that you have to work on yourself in order to be the person you wanna be or the person you think you wanna be.

And just working on that by unpacking what you're dealing with on the inside and then being able to come out of that with joy and happiness and peace and love and all of the aspects of the fruit of the spirit is what I live my life on every single day.

- So it takes a year to read this?

- Yes.

- Correctly.

- If you do it correctly.

- If you do it correctly.

- That's right.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- I always like to skip to the, anyway.

You not only talk the talk, you walk the walk, you've been on a mission trip.

- Yeah.

- Where was that?

- So I went to Acuna, Mexico.

That was my first time ever flying out of the country or leaving the country.

And I got on that plane and I was like- - [Rob] Was it by yourself?

- Well, I went with a group from my church, but like- - But I mean no parents or- - Yeah, my parents, family, no, that was my first flight ever by myself.

No family involved.

- They went to Puerto Vallarta.

- Really?

- No, your parents.

It was a joke, that they went to the good part, yeah.

- No, they stayed home.

It was Christmas time and actually, I got a call from my brother's best friend Bryce and he was like, "Hey Paris, we're leaving for the mission trip in two days.

Someone got sick, they backed out, you wanna go?"

I was like, "Yeah, I want to go."

I love spontaneous trips.

So I packed my bag literally in one day, had to have it to the church, left Christmas night and we got to Acuna the next day and we proceeded to build two homes for two families that live there.

So it was with a organization called Casas Por Cristo, which means Homes for Christ.

And so with that, they give this opportunity to these impoverished families to build houses for them and allow them to grow and to hopefully get on the right step in life and just to also share Jesus with them also.

So I think that that's awesome how they can share that with them and be a part of that and we get to meet them for a week, but you're impacting them for a lifetime.

And so I truly enjoyed getting to go on that.

And I also learned how to wire a house, so I actually wired the entire house for electricity.

- Is this house still standing?

- Yes.

So far I've heard it is.

I mean, I might have to double check, but.

- They taught you how to wire right there?

- Yeah, they taught me on the spot and so I just- - [Rob] Can you wire a three-way switch?

- It wasn't that complicated.

We had- - The answer is no.

- The answer is no.

But I know how to wire so I could probably figure it out, you know?

- Okay.

Alright.

I'm assuming this place was pretty poor.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- It was sad.

It was hard to see that coming from America where we are blessed with so much and people don't always realize how much they have until you get into a place that's like that and it opens your eyes to see that not everyone has those same basic necessities that you do.

And so it was really neat to see us go in there and transform their lives just by building them a house, you know?

And something that is so small but it's so big for them and- - Yeah, it's nice to have a house.

- Yeah.

- I go on vacation, right?

Which is fantastic.

You're supposed to enjoy yourself, but you land at the airport and then you take a bus trip to the destination.

When you're going through there, you see like, my gosh, the conditions that people are living under are really, really tough and poor.

And this, I guarantee what I was seeing was probably nothing compared to you.

Has that made an impact that has kind of changed your whole view on the world?

- It has.

It really has.

And it also made me that when I got back home, I wanted to look into what can I do here?

What can I do to help people here?

Because you know, we can go other places in the world, but mission trips are needed everywhere.

We might be an amazing country that has so many opportunities for people, but there's still people struggling out there and people who need help.

And so it opened my eyes to that, to not just looking outside of the country, but also look within and see what we need to do here.

- You could do that, you could travel around the world in a tiny home.

- Yes.

- What's all that about?

- Oh my.

Have you ever heard of a sprinter van being flipped into a tiny home?

- I know what a sprinter van is.

- Yeah, so people basically turn those into full-time living RV homes.

And so that's always been my dream, is to flip one and turn it into my dream home and just hit the road.

- This is your dream?

- Yeah.

- To live in a van?

- Yeah.

- Down by the river?

- Not by the river.

- You don't even get that?

It's fine.

It's fine.

It's fine.

Okay, so is it just the mobility of it that you're, do you like to be constrained?

- I really like the idea of adventure and not having a timeline and just being able to travel and go where you want to go and being free with that.

And so I thought it would be an awesome idea to do that at one point in my life.

And so I hope that eventually I'll be able to do that, but yeah.

- You need to do, there was a gal we interviewed long time ago, Natalie Sense, and a year after she graduated college, she took her little car.

I think she was sponsored by like Beck's Hybrid.

And she went to every single state and interviewed someone in agriculture.

That's what you need to do with your sprinter van.

And then you could write a book on your, I don't know.

- That would be amazing.

I would love that.

- She got in a wreck though.

You don't want that.

- Oh.

I've been in a wreck before, so I- - Are you a bad driver?

- No, I'm not.

I actually hydroplaned, it was raining.

Which today it's raining.

How ironic, right?

(both laughing) - Your love of of ag, though.

That's what I, you know, selfishly I love that.

So where do you think you get that from?

- It's been instilled in me from a young age.

My parents, John and Katrina, were- - Who are here.

- Who are here.

Yeah, they're watching.

- And they love to support you.

You can tell that.

And that's really cool to see.

Believe me, I enjoy making fun of you, but it was so cool to see that your parents were so proud of you.

- I'm so thankful to have them in my life and me and my siblings are just so grateful for that and having parents who want to be a part of that and be a part of all the things you walk through.

And so yeah, they're here today.

Super excited about that.

And I would say that they just instilled it in me from a young age.

They were major state officers for the FFA organization.

- Oh yeah?

- Yeah.

And so they have taught me you've gotta put in the work and learning about agriculture is one of the most important things you'll ever do.

My grandpa has a third generational farm.

They farm corn and soybeans and my brother actually works on that farm with him now too.

And so just getting to see that generationally and witnessing the hardships but the great parts too.

And I just have loved growing up on a sheep farm and just being hands on with agriculture.

I think that's the best way to learn, is to just jump right in and do the work.

- Well, you've definitely done that.

Where can people find this?

- They can find this on amazon.com.

"Grow in Grit" by Paris Van Dyke and yeah, you can look it up and it's on sale there.

- Are you on the social media anywhere?

- Yeah, so you can find me on Facebook and Instagram and then you'll just search grow_in_grit and you should find my page- - Oh, somebody else had it first, huh?

So you had to do the underscore?

- Yeah.

Have you ran into that problem too?

- No, I am an eager beaver.

SharkFarmer.

When something comes up, right there, SharkFarmer.

- You're just the one and only.

- Damn right.

(both laughing) I think it's incredibly impressive what you're doing at your age.

I know I definitely did not have the maturity or the intelligence or the patience or much else to do what you do.

So you're a great representative, not just of agriculture, but of your age.

I love that you're not afraid to talk about your faith.

- Thank you.

- I absolutely love that.

And I wish I had that courage when I was your age.

Took me a long time before I was brave enough to do that so it says a lot about you.

Paris Van Dyke from Louisville, Illinois.

Thank you so much for you and your parents coming down here and talking to us.

Really, really, really enjoyed it.

- Thank you for having me, Rob.

It's been an amazing experience.

- Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

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