There is always work in the countryside, but for Tamara Danilović from Klenj near Bogatić in Serbia, no task is too difficult. This young, hard-working girl in her early 20s breaks stereotypes about the role of young people in the countryside by helping her father with all the agricultural work. He drives a tractor, plows a field, and all while studying medical biochemistry.
While balancing her duties at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Novi Sad with intensive work on the family farm, Tamara shows incredible energy, dedication and love for her hometown. Through the story of her daily life, she emphasizes the importance of family support, traditional values and balancing between modern education and life in the countryside, reports Serbian Times.
Tamara’s father, as the head and responsible for agricultural affairs, points out that agriculture has become much more difficult and demanding in the last 30 years. But in this process, Tamara’s help in farming and transporting grain is of great importance.
And as she says, she absolutely enjoys such jobs.
“For as long as I can remember, my dad has been farming. Seeing how much he actually tries to improve and how much he actually loves his job, regardless of the fact that he is sometimes not satisfied, he was a wind at my back. I wanted to contribute in any way, to help, to make it easier for them. It’s true that I’m a woman, but I’m also not incapable, I can drive, I can help, nothing is difficult for me, I’m tiny, but I manage,” says Tamara.
“I want to follow in my dad’s footsteps”
As she points out, she enrolled in the university at her father’s persuasion, because for her, living in the countryside and doing agriculture is still the primary thing.
“My wish was actually to continue in my father’s footsteps, to engage in agriculture, but I don’t have any support because he is simply more experienced, he has been through everything and knows what awaits me and it is not easy. So his wish was for me to enter university, to study, to have my own job, my own career afterwards… At the moment, I am divided into two sides, the side that I would like to go to university as well. I can’t say, I also like biochemistry, but this is my house. my village, I was born here, I grew up here. I was raised in such a way that I know how to work, that it is not difficult or embarrassing for me to work. I help my dad, especially in the summer when I have less responsibilities at university. While he drives the harvester, I transport to the mill. I also like to plow, I like to work with the harrow the most, that’s when my brain is on pasture”, Tamara says with a smile to the YouTube channel “Mačva info”, and adds that working with new machines is not a problem for her, which is why the whole family strives to before and as much as possible equipped with modern machines.
“People should not leave the village”
As someone who studies in Novi Sad, she admits that she is not enthusiastic about the daily crowds in the city, which is why she believes that it is much better to live in the countryside. This is precisely why he claims that people should not leave the villages.
“People really shouldn’t leave the village. On the contrary, those from the city should come to the village and see what peace and freedom mean. Here, nobody is trapped in four walls… Also, I hope that people will wake up and support us young farmers, as well as experienced farmers, because again they are the ones who have been in this for a long time. I think this is the future,” says Tamara.
When asked if she received comments because of the not-so-usual lifestyle and work for a young girl, Tamara says that there were some – from beautiful to not so beautiful.
“There are various comments, of course, from nice to not so great, but oh well. It is mine to work and to help. I’m not ashamed. I have friends who are engaged in similar work and are successful in it”, concluded Tamara.
Although she is not the only one in her village who shows the family in agriculture, because, as her father states, there are three other girls who, due to her father’s heart surgery, currently do everything for him, her neighbor says about Tamara: “She is capable, more capable than any boy in village and throughout Mačva. I have no words, she is the best”.
