Reflections: Work

Some foolish person somewhere once said, "Choose something you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life."

I don't know where they were working, but I find that a little too good to be true.

You see, when I'm not writing, I'm doing my "real" job as a veterinary technician. And I love it. There's nowhere else I'd rather work, no other team of coworkers I'd rather have, no other job I'd rather do.  It's challenging, rewarding, heartwarming, fun, enjoyable, and (though it sounds terribly cliche) my passion. I can't imagine doing anything else full time, even writing.

But it's work. To steal a quote from the Princess Bride, "Anyone who says differently is selling something."

Even on this week dedicated to  my profession
, where my awesome workplace insists on showering all of us techs with food and coffee and gifts, it's work.

Holding down a Mastiff that's dysphoric and unsure where it's at when it's waking up from anesthesia is work. Pulling up a downed horse using ropes is work. Scooping manure is work. Dragging yourself from your warm bed at 2 AM to go anesthetize a cat that ate a thread is work.

It's not glorious. It's sweaty. Hot. Sometimes miserable. Heartbreaking, when all your effort goes to waste.

You see, we seem to think that work is a bad thing. That putting forth effort, that striving with all our might, that throwing our backs into the ropes, is the worst thing that could happen. That trying to learn the names of 30 different drugs and how they work is torture. Work. It's an ugly word.

But is work really a bad thing? What if we rephrased "work"? What if we chose "strive" instead? Working isn't bad. Drudgery is bad. Working only for the money is rather dismal (and I suspect that's what the author was truly driving toward). Don't get me wrong--you should do something you enjoy, something you're good at, something that gives you purpose. 

But would our goals really give us purpose if we didn't have to strive for them? Give them everything we have? Would our jobs be as rewarding if they came easily to us?

That's the true drudgery we ought to avoid.

So, rather than avoiding work, let's find work that really satisfies. A job to which we can apply our efforts with our whole hearts--whether that's writing or something else entirely.

 Go find something worth putting your soul into, even on days when it feels like really dull work.