Odd Jobs

When you hear a child talk about what they want to be when they grow up the answers are usually pretty basic: fireman, doctor, ballerina, singer. Then you get into Middle School or High School and the dreams of employment expand some, but are still pretty limited to things like graphic artist, psyciatrist, and accountant.

Then when you enter into the real world there are so many more options. A lot of them being careers that most people would never directly pursue, but somehow these positions are still filled. Many of these employees are represented on the hit show "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel. If you have never seen this program you should because it is fascinating. They cover all the dirtiest jobs in America, like road kill collector or septic tank technician. Not too many people say they want to be a septic tank technician when they grow up, but people do it.

Then there are jobs that aren't dirty, but are still just kind of obscure. My friend's dad manages an adhesive company. Not just any adhesive, but the kind that comes on stuff in the mail sometimes, and you can peel it off and it's stretchy. I never really thought about the fact that someone has to make that stuff. There is also someone out there creating yarn, and thinking of new colors for nail polish, and someone besides Dunder Mifflin is actually selling paper.

Sure you have politicians, lawyers, homemakers, teachers, etc., but their are so many other people working hard, doing tasks that often go unrecognized, creating this life as we know it. Take movie credits for example, you usually hear about the lead actors and director, but there are hundreds of other people doing all kinds of odd jobs to make the film happen.

I bring this up because all jobs, whether they seem big or small, long term or temporary, play an important part in our lifestyle. Although our jobs do not define us, they do help shape us and teach us, in one way or another.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.