Because I Love What I Do - Visitor's Inspirational Story

by Cathy Dalton
(Chesapeake, VA, USA)

Day in, day out, we awake, shower and prepare for a day of work. Forget the weekends when it’s just the regular work of laundry, grocery shopping and house cleaning. I mean the ‘work’ that provides us a living. The work that we envision to be our career. The work where you support your fellow colleagues all in a unified effort for a common goal…..the success of your organization. What was once only a vision takes off like a rocket and becomes a success. A dream of one man, supported by a cast of 100+ that is so successful it swells to include others from all over all wanting to be a part of the dream. All wanting to carve their own niche in something that people will talk about for years to come.

We each have our own special talent. A talent, coupled with a loyalty, that was counted on to help the dream come true. It takes not only the talent, but blood, sweat and tears and a willingness and a drive to be not only successful, but appreciated for the efforts in making the dream come true.

In the beginning, you must do all you can with whatever is necessary. And, you do it without complaint because you have a role…a role you, personally, were picked for. A role you earned. A role that people said was made for YOU, a role they couldn’t imagine anyone else for. Opening day comes, it’s a huge success and long running. Still to this day, its an Academy Award performance, winning acclaims from all. Yet, the only award that remains from grasp is…the award of Appreciation.

Consider yourself studying, preparing, working towards a goal. Perhaps its a personal goal, perhaps it’s a corporate goal. The expectations are laid out in advance. You meet those expectations, resoundingly even by your own accord, yet the critics, the ones you really do all this for, bring in a bad review. There is no wining, no dining, just good hard work to support your colleagues. But for what? What the hell do we do all this for? The very people you work so hard to support and gain appreciation from are the very ones that without perhaps a thought, can bring you down to rock bottom with a few choice words. Perhaps they feel it constructive criticism, perhaps they simply like hearing themselves in front of the group explaining how they perceived their experience. What none of the others realize is that particular individual really had no clue when they first started the experience that they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

A vision, a process, any form of script, that is penned with ‘them’ in mind. A vision set to streamline, make efficiencies and, ultimately, ‘their’ role easier…make them a success, an Award Winner. We, however, are the supporting cast, the ones there to ‘support’ our fellow colleagues. They are our audience, yet become our critics. A few words catch the ear of the ‘producer’ and all our efforts, our sweat, our tears, become the ‘talk’ of the town. Again we ask… What the Hell do we do it for? Do they care they we are still there when the curtain closes cleaning up from the performances of the day and preparing for the next day performance? Do they know what we sacrifice to make them look so good? Do they care? How long will we remain a supporting cast member before someone from the outside comes with new ideas, new processes, new efficiencies? What the Hell do we do it for? Because we love it. Because it’s all we know. We do it because we do genuinely care what the critics say. To us, the words are personal despite being told not to take it personal.

Tomorrow, just like every day, I’ll wake, I’ll shower and I’ll prepare for the job that I love and hope, that one day, someone will not only appreciate but maybe enjoy my job as much as I do.