Thursday, December 11, 2025

Kats n' Jammers


 Our cat, Doctor Crush, from a few years ago in a peaceful, snow-filled scene. I was/am always surprised he doesn't mind the snow or cold too much (But he always comes back inside when he's ready). 

I have been thinking about the jobs I have had that made me wish I could do something like that full-time. Not all parts of the job, but certain aspects of it that I really enjoyed, that had me thinking, if only I could do *this* all day, instead of all the other parts.

Some examples were when I was working at the college library at art school, and in between the tasks I was assigned, I would just sit in the stacks in between shelves and shelves of art books and look through books of photography and paintings. I just wanted to do that all day long (and also make art). Then, when I worked in the book room at an elementary school, doing categorizing, filing, and labeling, I would stop and read the children's books ... and I just wanted to do that all day long (and also make art and illustrations, and write). That was a cool volunteer job, as was reading to kids with the S.M.A.R.T (Start Making a Reader Today) program at the same school.

Whenever I got to do art class projects with kids at the high school (especially in ceramics), I felt like I would be happy if I could just do that all day long. And when I got to play outside and do craft projects at the other elementary school for the after-school program "SHINE" I enjoyed everything about it, but missed reading and writing. And then, also at the high school jobs, I would be doing some research that was related to a curriculum I would need to present, or things that were specific to a student I was working with, and I would just be enjoying the process of learning, disseminating information, and researching, and I was always sad when I had to stop.

When I was at my other college jobs involving flat-copy slide photography, data entry, and other computer work, I really enjoyed doing that, and was content to perform the office and photo studio side of the tasks we had, but it was sadly only a small portion of the work shift.

I dislike the same things about working at schools as I did as a student: the bells, the rush, the scheduling, the early starts, being indoors all day, and the large classes. It would be so great if you found something you liked and could keep doing it until you were done, instead of having to stop and go start something completely different. I read something about Montessori schools and Reggio Emilia schools today that made me realize that not only would that have served me better when I was a student, but also would fulfill me more as a teacher.

Here's to being able to do what suits you best, all the time, every day. Peace. 

            Doctor Pepper posing



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