Cody Snyder knew that he could always return to the farm, so he took advantage of the opportunity to work, travel and learn, “Because the farm is always there, it’ll never go anywhere,” he says.
For a while he worked as a licensed mechanic and then decided to live in England for two years. He’s also travelled to Russia and Sweden.
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His dad never pressured him to get involved in the farm, but did show him the ropes from an early age. And every time he visited the family farm, he always jumped in to lend a hand. “This is when I realized, hey, this is unique, it’s cool and not everyone gets this opportunity.”
But when he returned home to the Ontario cash crop, custom work and award-winning maple syrup operation, he was initially worried. “What if I don’t want to do this? I’m putting all my eggs in one basket.” So, he decided to go back to school to get his bachelor of education and teaches an automotive class part-time at a nearby high school.
“I teach the very first class in the morning, so I’m home by 10 a.m.… It takes a bit from the morning, but it alleviates the financial stress.”
Snyder is grateful to have had the opportunity to travel and meet people from around the world because it helped him realize what his passion was. “(When you meet) these random people, you just naturally start talking about your interests… and you just start realizing that you’re talking about your own passion. When you leave somewhere, you can be whoever you want to be and if you end up being the exact same person talking about your passions, you start realizing more about yourself from yourself.”
