But if it's your job, won't you hate it?

Food for thought:

Does doing something for a living ultimately mean it will make you unhappy?

When I first graduated from High School I was given what I have often called A Dream Job. It was presented to me after years of volunteering and activism. I began working for a youth network that assisted youth in care or leaving care of formerly from care with things like advocacy, life skills and social networking.

I got paid to do things like make birthday cards, or play board games, or go to a theme park for the day.

Don't get me wrong, this job was no walk in the park. I also had to do a lot of tedious paperwork and I had to deal with a lot of emotional turmoil. When you work with youth in care, you hear some stories and it can be emotionally draining. Eventually it was so much so that I needed to move on, but for about two years I could hardly believe I was getting paid to do what I did.

Now, was it because it was ultimately a 'job' that I burned out?

Uh...no.

See, life is change and even the things we love and the things that make us happy are inconsistent, which is why so many people are miserable. They decide something makes them happy and if it stops doing that they don't always see it and they hold on too tight instead of accepting the impermanence of everything.

So yeah, there is a chance that doing what I'm doing right now, int his moment as an artist, won't always satisfy me the way it does. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing art. It's vast and the opportunities are vast. The ways in which I can grow and express myself are endless so I will only get bored if I let my work and passion become stagnant. The difference between this job, however, and any other, is that it belongs to me.

When I'm working for a retailer I'm filling their job. I'm doing something for someone because they pay me to.

When I work for me, I'm doing my own job and that means I make my own hours, my own goals, my own tasks...

ultimately I make it what I want it to be.

So I'm happy, because I've no reason not to be.

And two more dragons! No longer a dragon a day since I'm terribly busy preparing for my ten day trip, but I'm still going to complete 31 dragons by the end of November.