Throughout the last 22 years, I’ve been told repeatedly that growing up in a small rural town would offer few opportunities for education and life in general, compared to those who went off to boarding school and lived in larger towns and cities.

In many ways it was harder, but there were also many benefits, including one on one mentoring through school, which I think got me to where I am, and the strong friendships I have built that I have carried with me since.

I have never once felt like I missed out, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be educated in a rural town to then go on and study Ag Business Management in what’s referred to as the best Agricultural University in the country.

However, I think knowing the value of hard work has been the biggest and best lesson I’ve learnt living in regional NSW and working for what you have.

Every mother, farmer, farmer’s wife and business owner has shown me this and it is a lesson I will take with me wherever I go.

I’m so grateful to have grown up with a really, really, really, big backyard and still be able to wake up to it every morning.

Learning family values and developing a passion to sustain what we have today for my generation and every generation after is also a result of living and experiencing rural life.

Most of all, I’m grateful for the women who inspire me every single day. I could never choose just one because for me there’s just too many, which is the beauty of living in a small town.

From my school teachers who went above and beyond, my mum for being the legend that she is and all my “other mums”, my beautiful girlfriends and all the female leaders we are so lucky to have in our town.

You gals are what I love most about living in Harden, especially because you all give the men of our town a run for their money!

I’d like to thank every rural woman in my community for allowing me to grow up in a small town with so many strong women who inspire me every day and have shown all of us that living in regional NSW is not only a great opportunity, but something to be grateful for.

Each of you are a force to be reckoned with.