In celebration of a job well done

I really do feel that I give my full energy to my job throughout the year. I've the got potential to be a workaholic- I'm always turning over my to do list in the back of my mind, and I'm prone to not sleeping well when there's too much to do and just going into work to get it done. I feel better when the job is done, so I'd rather put in the extra time to do it well than to just go home at the end of the day.

So throughout most of the year, I have to make a conscious effort to remind myself that the work will still be there tomorrow.

And once in a while, I have a project that comes up against a deadline that demands 100% of what I can give. When that happens, I'm happiest at work. My wife hates when this happens, but I can't help it.

Reunion weekend at the college where I work is an event like that. Last night, walking home from the finally party of the night at the end of another 16 hour day, after a concert and ceremony to honor one of my favorite professors, after a breakfast to celebrate the hard work of the reunion committees, after a drama alumni show, I was exhausted.

But it was the ecstatic exhaustion of a job well done. There was a time when I worried that I'd only get this feeling from teaching. I was thrilled to discover that I could find it in other work.

And I'm thrilled whenever I get this feeling- knowing I've give everything I have, and the result was better than I hoped for. It's a feeling that says to me: "Life is good."