The Life and Times of Cooper Folmer
By Cooper Folmer
This story, much like many other stories begins like this. Back in 1997 a young man was born in Bismarck, ND. The married couple was so honored that they were going to be called his parents. They decided to name him Cooper (that’s me). Cooper then spent the first couple years of his life up at the family farm by Regan, ND. After turning the age of two, Cooper decided it was time for a change, so he convinced his folks that they should move to Minnesota, and they did (father’s job may have had something to do with it as well). Well, Cooper grew up and matured in Minnesota for another 8 years till he thought to himself, “Ya know, I don’t care for it here anymore, let’s go back to North Dakota.” You guessed it, they did. Cooper spent the last of his adolescent years in Powers Lake where he graduated from high school. After graduating in the top three of his class (fun fact, only three kids were in his class, would’ve been embarrassing if he was in the top five, right?), he decided he should go and get a degree in fisheries sciences at Valley City State University, and so he did. Some say he is still there today, trying to graduate.
Now we will move onto some fun facts about Cooper. Cooper enjoys attempting to catch fish, missing ducks, and spooking deer. Some of his efforts are successful, but he mostly just enjoys being outside doing these things. He also enjoys his job as a butcher at Valley Meat Supply and likes to help at the farm cleaning up stuff, fixing stuff, or just doing stuff. Cooper likes to make things, whether they are spearing decoys, a non-functioning turkey call, or just silly little things that don’t look nice or work, but he doesn’t care, he enjoys it.
I spoke with Cooper the other day, and he told me the reason he wants to go to Texas is to see what he wants to do with his life. Does he want to travel to new lands with different opportunities? Does he want to work in the fisheries field in Texas or North Dakota? What does he want to do with his life? That is one of the things he hopes to get out of this trip, help him decide on his future career. Also, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for this select group of students, and one they will never forget.