Doing what you love.

[piperdbh]

I'm a high school choir director, and most days, I really like what I do, especially during the summer. There are times when the kids are around the piano and they're learning notes and we start putting different voice parts together and the kids hear themselves harmonizing and their eyes light up and it's really magical. Then the bell rings and they have to go do some math. I often have kids tell me that my choir was the main factor in them staying in school to graduate. That's "...such a good feeling...", as Mr. Rogers would say.
How did I get this gig? I applied for it. There was one Music Ed. job open in my county that year, and I was the one applicant, so, lo and behold, guess who got the job? Yours truly. Seven years later I'm still plowing away at it.

In the past I worked in a cultured marble plant. Didn't love that. I DJed 3 nights a week on the local AM station. It was OK for a little while, but it got old. I worked in a dept. store for a while. Didn't love that.
A college friend had been in the Coast Guard, and he said someone he knew on the ship would say, "Figure out what you are, and be that." That's the best career advice I can offer.

[KiltedBrewer]

As you might guess from my handle, I make beer for a living. I started as a homebrewer and was in the right place at the right time when an assistant brewer job opened up, so I was able to start part-time while I was in college. Now I work at a much bigger brewery as one of five brewers. I love it. Of course there are days when things don't go right, but that's life. Sometimes I miss the creativity of writing all my own recipes as a homebrewer, but I still get to brew small batches of my own beer at work occasionally--and those days absolutely rock! I love making beer, and I love my job.

You mentioned that you love scuba diving. I've made my living at that, too. I've been diving since I was 12 and I became an instructor at 21. I spent a year working on a live-aboard dive boat in the Bahamas. That was a really cool job, but it was tough for me to be "on" for passengers 24 hours a day. I guess I'm just more of an introvert.

There's always a way to make a living doing what you love, but it will never be the same doing it for someone else as it is for yourself.

David

[ChubRock]

I was a high school teacher for ten years. I left teaching to become a consultant for new school construction. At times I more than doubled my pay, even tripled it one year. I knew as a consultant that I was having an impact on thousands, if not tens-of thousands of children. but it wasn't the same.

Two years ago I was fortunate enough that a tech coordinator job at my local high school opened up. Not only do I love the gig, but I get the feedback that the people love having me there. Money is not enough, we all need validation that we are someone.

Working on completing my doctorate is a dream I wouldn't have had in a job outside of teaching. My last boss at the consulting firm actually said, "How will that help you here?" Two weeks later I left and have no regrets. Except the poop.

[Galloping Foxley]

I always wanted to be a Solicitor but my parents pushed me into Acting. Done projects with the BBC and a few film studios. At last I am a Solicitor and I enjoy my work. All the best Master Foxley.

[ForresterModern]

Since I was 14 I wanted to be a doctor, got that from my mother who was a nurse until the day she retired. At the same time I caught the teaching bug, from my father a music teacher until his retirement, and I really enjoyed working with all different ages of kids during student teaching assignments as a VP of the Future Teachers of America club in high school. Also always enjoyed taking things apart and fixing them, or organizing things so they ran or worked better together---a natural born problem solver with vision, according to my grandparents. I also loved to write, to say new things in new ways others could understand but not say themselves. Never knew how those things could be remedied in one job until I started doing what I do for a living.

I am a physician who specializes in radiology, more recently known as diagnostic imaging, meaning xrays, CAT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, and special interventional procedures. But my practice is limited to children only, so I am a pediatric radiologist. I get to work with children every day. I enjoy interacting with both healthy and ill children, being able through what I do to bring not only health but I hope a little laughter and happiness to their day by making their tests go more easily and be less frightening. My reward is the smiling face I get when I tickle a child to tell them their test is done, or get to watch them get better right in front of my eyes because of something I have done with my hands, my eyes, my mind or my voice. That alone would be enough to keep me happy all my days, but I am also blessed with the skill of a teacher, and the opportunity to teach young doctors, as my practice is within a teaching childrens hospital. It is a rare and wonderful thing to see a young doctor's face light up as they finally register a new idea or concept for the first time, and then see it put into use in helping those sick children. To teach them new and different ways of interacting with thier patients, the children, and their parents, and with other physicians and healthcare workers, to see both the small and big pictures of halthcare provision. I also get to investigate interesting cases and new techniques of doing what I do, but better, more successfully, and in less invasive or less painfull ways, which offers me the opportunity to teach my peers by writing articles and lecturing at national meetings. Lastly, I have in the last year taken a new position as the chief of my department, the leader, the go to person, in charge of managing the other radiologists, the technologists in the department, the equipment , new technology purchases, new designs for expansion of our physical plant and practice boundaries, and how our work interacts with the rest of the physicians and hospital functions and community in general. I get to identify, investigate, evaluate, and then fix problems with all of the above areas of the workings of my department. No job is perfect, and mine comes with its share of headaches, but I never have a problem getting up and going to work in the morning as each day is a new challenge, something to fix or make work better, and a new opportunity to teach, and another chance to make a difference in childrens lives. Yes I love what I do. Mind you, I would be the happiest man alive if I were put out of business by universal childhood health---I would cut lawns, or be a flyfishing guide, or a kindergarten teacher, or pump gas for a living. But until the day all children are healthy and don't need my skills I will carry on doing what I do--healing, helping, teaching, organizing-- with a big smile either displayed on my face, or, when the going gets tough, at least there in my heart and mind.

And that is how I unwittingly remedied all the variegate things I have loved to do in my professional life.

[Donnie]

I do what I love. That being going off to an exotic wildlife park called The Lazy 5 Ranch. I am a teamster in the truest sence of the word. I drive draft horses and give tours theought the park. I then come home and enjoy the smell of leather while creating wearable art for my friends here and elsewhere!

[pdcorlis]

I'm fortunate enough to do what I love - I teach photography at the local college and also practice what I preach focusing on landscape and travel photography. Looking back - it was a long and, at times, difficult road to that first tenure track position. It would have been easy to throw in the towel but I'm glad I didn't. I am one lucky duck - I get to follow my bliss.

[Joseph McLaren]

I am an illustrator for book covers and newspapers and magazines. It's exactly what I always wanted to do~ and I am thankful for it every day.