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Sheridanite in the World
Kathryn isn’t technically a Sheridan Native but she may as well been. Her family moved to Sheridan when she was two-years-old, and she remembers nothing except the Big Horn Mountains beyond her house windows.
Her family moved to Sheridan when her father, Mark Law, found a job at Holly Hybrids, now known as Holly Seed, but that is not why they stayed. Kathryn remembers numerous times when her Father would say, “I don’t live in Sheridan because of where I work, but I work where I do because I live in Sheridan.”
Mark had a lot of people come to Sheridan for business meetings, and every time they showed up the family would pack in the Suburban and take a ride up Red Grade for the beautiful view. As a child, Kathryn never understood the draw.
“I didn’t understand, however I now know, many people are not as privileged as we are in Sheridan to have the mountains we have. To me, it was all I ever knew. We camped in secret spots near Park Reservoir, skied Antelope Butte, hiked Tongue River Canyon and up to Black Mountain Lookout, took the boat out to Lake Desmet, and sat in the bleachers during WYO Rodeo. It was just day to day life,” Kathryn said.
After she graduated from Sheridan High School in 2007, she immediately moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma for college.
“I remember coming home for the summer after my freshman year of college, and I was driving out to Dayton to see my friend cross the finish line of the Bighorn Mountain Trail Run. I went around a corner, looked up and studied the mountains that were so familiar to me and all of a sudden everything was new. I could not stop staring at them. I even had to pull over because I was becoming a hazard to other drivers on the interstate!”
Even though Kathryn started to see the beauty of Sheridan more, she couldn’t shake her love/hate relationship with her hometown.
“I think that feeling is normal for a lot of kids. You are trying to find your independence and where you fit in. There was this feeling inside of me that I never chose Sheridan, but Sheridan somehow chose me. It was just an outcome of my parent’s decisions. Growing up you face many ups and downs, and as far as I was concerned, Sheridan reminded me of the adolescent Kathryn.”
In 2011, after her time in Oklahoma, she stumbled across a program called The World Race. Kathryn has always been passionate about traveling and giving hope to the hopeless, but ultimately, it was her faith that prompted her to apply. She spent the next year traveling to 11 countries working with ministries and non-profits.
“The World Race is a Program sending people to 11 countries in 11 months to do missions work. It is faith-based but not affiliated with a specific church. I was skeptical at first because I didn’t want to go on a mission trip that was about going into an impoverished community and yelling, “Jesus Saves!” I was passionate about being real, living life, and caring more about loving someone with the true compassion of Christ and letting them know that there is hope. I wanted people all over the world to know that they were valued and recognized.”
The countries she visited are: The Philippines, China, South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
According to Kathryn, The World Race was the hardest and best thing she has ever done.
“Not only do you see heart wrenching poverty, move countries every month, but you also must learn how to live in a close community with people around you. You have to learn what it looks like to have healthy communication,” she said.
When she ended her trip in 2012, she moved back to Sheridan. It was during that time she started planting some new roots and began to find her place in the community.
“It was the first time that I felt like I chose Sheridan. To be honest, I never wanted to go back to Sheridan. I fought it. I have found that a lot of my decisions were based on wanting to have ownership of my own life. ”
Kathryn finally felt entirely comfortable calling Sheridan “home.” Little did she know that in January of 2015, she would once again head out to travel and serve people all over the world with The World Race. This time was a little different, as she would be leading a squad of “racers” for 5 months.
“Even though Sheridan had its imperfections, it felt like a dream. I was working at Legacy Pregnancy Center and left work everyday feeling more and more fulfilled than when I came. I had met beautiful youth through K-Life that I had the pleasure of working with, and my community of friends was more than a person could ask for! It was bittersweet! I was excited, because traveling is in my blood, and I knew it would be an opportunity to pour into lives and encourage people on the same journey I took while serving impoverished people. Yet, a big part of me felt like the beauty and glory of my time in Sheridan would dissipate in 5 months.”
Despite her hesitations, she left, but not without a few Sheridan, Wyoming staples: an engraved 307 necklace, a Surf Wyoming shirt, and a Kings Rope hat. Clearly, she was determined to represent “God’s country” while traveling the world.
For this trip she went to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and her current country, Panama. Later in the year, she will visit her squad for a week in Ecuador, and Argentina.
Before Kathryn left, she did a t-shirt fundraiser which she made clear to us, “Tell them thank you for supporting me by purchasing, and wearing, those shirts!” One of the most popular one says, “You will never influence the world by trying to be like it.”
“I was in Panama ecstatic to have Wi-Fi for longer than 5 minutes, so of course I got on Facebook. I saw not one, but two different people wearing my shirts in their photos. It was a sweet reminder of all the people at home praying for me and supporting me. It was humbling, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t shed a tear or two. The community of Sheridan not only supported me in 2011, but once again, came beside me and cheered me on for round two. I am very blessed to call Sheridan home.”
We asked her if she could give anyone advice about her experiences around the world, and she said, “I don’t know if I can give one piece of advice, but I do know this, traveling has taught me that my passions matter, and my dreams have value. As humans, we are born with things that make us feel alive. Somewhere along the way, the world tends to teach us that our dreams are unreachable, or even unrealistic. But the reality is, the things you are passionate about are not random; they are often times the very calling you have on your life—the way you are supposed to leave your mark on the world. Those passions are your unique fingerprint. Run towards the momentum of your passions, and make an impact.”
