I am extremely lucky to love what I do. Yes, like everyone, I have days where coming in to work is the last thing I want to do, but journalism remains energizing, frustrating, exciting, and sometimes endless (like any other job). Yet it remains a challenge and engaging..

 I never watch the clock (if anything, I'm scrambling to get everything done within 10 hours), and despite my intentions to do cool stuff when I finally get home, I usually fall asleep.

Again, I'm lucky. We really do only live once, and though I'm not an adventrurer -- working for same company 35 years, not a rock climber, etc. -- I find fulfullment daily.  When I read folks on Facebook saying, "Will Friday ever come??' it makes me sad that folks live like that.

Yes, circumstances dictate how we live and it's easy to say 'do something you love' when that's not possible, but that's what I tell young people. The best decision young people can make is to go after a dream and not a paycheck. 

After graduating college in the early 70s I was a garbage man for four years. Not a summer job. A job. A garbage man in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., with a B.A. Four years I did that. Sort of a John Lennon working class hero thing, I thought at the time. (I was also kinda clueless, but that's another story).

Talk about 'will Friday ever come!'

But I took some more journalism courses and ended up doing what I always wanted to do. And those days on the street helped me cover cops the next year.

Anyhow, the cycle of life is breakable is you stop it early. But as most of us here know, once the cycle gets turning, yes , it's hard to get off!

david