The View from There

As I told you a few weeks ago, my son got a last minute offer to teach school in Washington State.  He left within a week of the offer and has been teaching for a couple of weeks now.  When I talked to him by text the other day (new technology, huh?) I asked him how it was going.  He told me that he goes into work an hour before classes start so he can prepare for the day and that he loves his job.  He also apparently loves his rental home, because he posts a photo like this on his Facebook almost every night – the view from his couch in his living room.
Everyday I think how happy I am for him. And how I am jealous of my 24 year old. I changed roles at work several weeks ago – no promotion, no raise – just a different role that was supposed to be handling reporting and analytics and responsibility for one location.  However, instead of just that, as a result of the arrival of a baby, co-worker having surgery and a couple of vacations, I have conveniently been assigned not only my new assignment but taking on the responsibilities of all of these individuals.  I’m salary so once again I’m working for free as I’ve been putting in tons of overtime.  I went into work once this week at 5:00 a.m. – not because I wanted to like my son does at his job – but because there was absolutely no way I was going to get everything done by my Friday deadline unless I spent extra time at the office.
I tell you this not to gain sympathy, but to encourage us all that somewhere out there is our joy, a job that we would enjoy getting up for each morning and not mind going to earlier than necessary.  And that it is possible to have that dream view of the world from where we are sitting.