Shout out to my favorites for the blog title. It’s from their song “Four Letter Word,” which does, in fact, feature one of those four letter words — in the preceding line, no less. Interestingly enough, the way things are going as of late, I probably should have titled this entry that, but that’s not very polite, and I am nothing but polite.
Travel season is almost over. I’ve put an inappropriate amount of miles on my poor rental car; fortunately, the worst damage it’s seen is some punk high schooler running into the driver’s side (There’s a pretty scratch on it that appeared out of nowhere. I’m assuming it was a punk high schooler, and considering how much time I spend in high school parking lots, I’m going to stick with it.) and a flat tire. The flat tire happened earlier this week, and not too be all Blanche DuBois on y’all or anything, but thank goodness for the kindness of strangers. I should probably learn how to change a flat … except it took no time at all to get someone to do that for me. Yay for concerned motorists!
I wish I could tell you something profound that I’ve learned in the past three months, but all I can say is that I’m really tired and not particularly looking forward to driving ten hours to get to Memphis tomorrow night. The past several weeks have been wonderful, and I am truly blessed to have such a fabulous job. I am the luckiest girl in the world to work for an outstanding school (which just so happens to be my alma mater and my baby), to have a handful of lovely coworkers, to have visited so many fantastic places, and to have been successful. I am good at what I do. I won’t be the first to tell you. For once in my life, I really believe that I am GREAT at something besides talking or making cupcakes.
This job isn’t hard. It’s not difficult to sell a place I love so much. It’s not difficult for me to say positive things and rattle off statistics about how fabulous this place is. I get paid to talk about my favorite place on Earth all day, and the best part is that I can count on one hand the amount of times I really had to force myself out of bed in the morning to go to work. That’s a blessing.
At the end of the day, I am exhausted, but it’s the good kind of exhausted — the kind that says you’ve done something good and productive with your day. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown in the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”
- George Bernard Shaw
He’s right. This is the true joy in life, and all I’m asking, Lord, is that the true joy continues for the people who share how I feel.
And maybe a day off wouldn’t be so bad, either.
