work. play.

There's something to be said about really loving what you do. I mean, what you do for a living. That's just it: growing up means finding a job that you can do 'for a living', meaning for the duration of your life. And if that something is satisfactory - okay. If it's a bore - that's too bad. If it pays the bills - it sounds like you are working for something everyone works for. But, if you thoroughly enjoy it - it's a dream.

I think I'm working in the last category. The, "I have a dream job" category. Because it's true, I am. I work 24 hours a week (estimated) in a cubicle in an office with others who do the same thing, and I work for free. It's an unpaid internship. The reaction I get from most people after telling them that is, "Oh that sucks." But in truth... it's fantastic.

I research. I wrote a story about bootlegging in the 1920s. I've researched Al Capone and discovered he used to spend time in hiding in a small Saskatchewan town. I know that the liquor company that distributes Absolute, Captain Morgans, and all the other famous liquors, was actually in the rum running business, and rum running is what led to such a successful company in the first place. I discovered that dinosaur bones were just unearthed in Alberta, a huge bonebed of them. This is what I do for a living!

I don't hate what I do. I love it. I have to figure out ways to make a story flow, to make it sound appealing to readers. I develop a good lede (not the kind of lede you see in a newspaper - I've done plenty of those), but a lede with colour, a lede like, "The S.S. I’m Alone went down beneath the waters in the Gulf of Mexico, pelted with bullet holes and sinking fast thanks to the blast from four explosive shells that detonated near it’s hull. One crewman, Canadian Leon Mainguy, goes down with the ship. The others, including Captain John Randell, are chained and thrown into a New Orleans jail."

My job is fun. F-U-N. I have fun. When I write something, and my editor tells me I've done a great job, says that it's exactly what they are looking for, I feel so excited. And when I see in the production room that I have two bylines for the next issue, I get a lump in my throat, because that is my name and my piece of work. It may not be a very large piece of work or an in-depth story with a photo spread, but it's got my name on it.

It's unfortunate that so many people out their truly hate their jobs. That every day they dread going getting into their car and going to work, for fear it will be another bad day. And it is sad, because it is something they will be doing for the duration of their lives, for at least 40 years, or longer.

I have bad days too, days where I'm not inspired and that is entirely frustrating. But I don't hate coming here and I don't hate writing. I love it.

Nothing is really work, unless you'd rather be doing something else.