It’s Labor Day in the U.S.
For many, that means cookouts and rushing to crowd several weekends of fun into one last fling before the weather turns colder (unless you live in Texas!).
On most holidays, I stop for a moment in my office and think about what the holiday means to me.
Labor Day has always been a reminder of how far hard work can take a person; it’s also a reminder that people died so that we could all have a 5-day work week of 8-hour days. And yet, many of us work well beyond that time.
If you love what you do, I can think of few things better than working hard and seeing the fruits of your labor blossom. But most people who put in 40+ hours a week do so at a job they are often not too fond of.
We all deserve a fun day at the lake, beach, or that last camp out of summer on Labor Day Weekend.
On Labor Day, I choose to work…on something I love. The long weekend has always been a great weekend to write — not just because I love to write, but because it’s a reminder that while I work harder than most people at my day job, my day job is not my dream job.
Every day I don’t write is another day I have to go to work; for me, Labor Day has always been a symbolic protest against the daily grind.
For me, Labor Day has always been a day of work, because I can think of no better labor than to sit down and write all day.
This was a really great post and it sums up how I feel about the holiday and life in general. I think we should all strive to work at something we love. If everyone loved what they did the word would be a far nicer place to live.
Thanks for the reply, Mason.
While writing is still not a full-time thing for me (at least in the sense of the money it brings in), I really do love the work aspect of it. In many ways, I like the work involved in writing a novel than any happiness it brings when I’m done.
One of the things I loved about Open Camp was being around so many people who work hard, whether they do what they love full time, or when they get home after a hard day at work.
I’m with you: if everybody loved what they did, there wouldn’t be as much anger out there. I know people say, “Yeah, but if everybody did what they loved, there’d be nobody to run the drive-thru window at Taco Bell, or do other jobs like that.”
I’ve worked in fast food, done landscaping and construction in the Texas heat, worked on loading docks and in factories and warehouses. I’ve done all kinds of cruddy jobs as I’ve worked hard to become a better writer. Like you, I think people should at least strive for finding work that makes them happy.
The happiest people I know are the people who love what they do. It doesn’t matter if these friends are artists, writers, or software developers, the people I know who have made a passion their life focus all their energy on their work and other things they love, instead of spending their time complaining and dwelling on things that bring them down.