Thanking my lucky stars for the 185th time

Today I caught myself doing something that I do often at work lately. I had been having lunch with a professor who I did some of my graduate work with, but who is a colleague of mine now (we both run civic engagement programs at the college- his has to do with public policy, mine with community engagement and service). We spent two hours talking about things we had been reading lately, we referred back to some of the things we had read together two years ago, we talked about linking those ideas to our programs and we talked about how to link our programs more closely to each other this year.

I got up from our long lunch and started across campus to my office. It was beautiful out and as I was walking, two of my students summoned me over to a bench they were sitting on in the quad. They had a few questions about the program that they are in and that I run. We sat in the sun and talked for a while about some ideas for this fall and about our upcoming retreat.

I got up from the bench and continued on my way back to my office, thinking to myself, "man, where has the time gone? I better get back to work".... And then I remembered that I was working. That I get paid to do things like talk to people, create relationships, and organize a program where students learn about themselves and at the same time provide resources to non profits in the community. That I like doing this so much that it often doesn't feel like work. I like it so much that I often forget that I am working altogether.

Hmmm. I decided today that I like that feeling, especially after reading about a dozen facebook posts about teachers returning to their classrooms today. I am not returning to my classroom this year. Instead I am thanking my lucky stars for approximately the 185th time that I left my classroom and ended up working in a job where I often am having so much fun that I forget that what I am doing is actually earning money.