Learning to love her life in the Bakken
By Ashleigh Plemper
Farmer Staff Writer
(Editor’s note: In tribute to Filipino American History Month, this article highlights the life of one Filipino woman in Watford City.)
Growing up in the Philippines, life was simple for Maribeth Stover. In her early years, she did what she needed to do by helping her parents on the family’s corn farm and they got by. But she’d eventually yearn for something more.
“We were not rich and we were not poor but it’s like you are working for food everyday,” she says. “You had small things but you were happy.”
Although she had learned to be happy with little, deep down, Stover craved something different. And it was in the world of retail that she saw an industry for herself.
“Growing up, I worked a lot. Sometimes, at night, there was a party. But you didn’t really have a life,” she says.
Shortly after graduating high school in 1994, Stover was ready to earn a living on her own.
“When I graduated high school, I started looking for jobs because I was tired of working on the farm with my dad,” she says. “I knew nothing was going to happen for me there.”
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