Passion.

I’m all twitchy today and working isn’t working for me. I like my job ok but today…can’t seem to concentrate on it. Which makes me wonder, is there any job that isn’t like that. I mean, you hear people talk about having a job that they are passionate about but, as Brenda has shown us, the passion part still gets interspersed with the book keeping part. Or, if you are passionate about the book keeping part, I am pretty sure that gets interspersed with something else too.

People ask that age old question, “If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?” and…I don’t know. I don’t think I have anything that I am so passionate about that I would not get twitchy doing it at some point. For many years I thought I would be a pastry chef. But somewhere along the way I realized that I never wanted to own my own restaurant or bakery but I sure as heck didn’t want someone else bossing me around in the kitchen (you so do not want to see how I cook, it’s one step removed from total chaos. I just fling things into the bowl until they smell right…seriously. Looking right is good but smelling right is better). Plus you have to stand up all day and for some reason I have this idea that you always have wet feet when you work in a kitchen, I don’t know why I think that but I do. Whatever, I hate wet feet. When I lived in North Carolina I would go through like 5 pairs of socks a day because it rained all the time and…oh, sorry, I am getting sidetracked….um…passion…work…

I once told someone that I would like to own a store that stocked only things that I liked, which is good in theory. I can’t be the only person looking for a pink argyle sweater with tiny skulls in the diamond pattern, right? (Don’t bother showing me one, I have since found it and rejected it because…I don’t really like argyle). I am certainly not the only person who loves stupid gadgets or vintage books or lace gloves…but I really never wanted to run a store. Don’t really want to be a freelance artist, I like structure too much…oh and um…limited talent is a problem there too…heh.

I don’t really know what I would do if I could do anything. Maybe I would read books but then you have to sit through all the bad ones and there are a lot of bad ones out there. Maybe I would be a vet, I don’t really mind the whole arm up a cow’s bum thing but I was never good enough in chemistry to feel confident that I wouldn’t poison some poor creature.

I guess the real question is…is it enough to LIKE what you do? Do you have to feel passion about your job or can you just enjoy it well enough most days? Are you an empty and unfulfilled (and unfulfilling) person if you get twitchy every once in a while and wonder how you might better spend your time? Heck, I really liked selling shoes, it was probably one of my favorite jobs ever, but the pay was crap and the days were long and…well…face it…your feet stink. All of you. Seriously, you should do something about that.