Love of Work

“I love my work”, I heard these words directly from one of our faculty member who was in the teaching profession for thirty five years.  She sounds so sincere though, but I felt cynical about her true meaning to her “love of work”.

When I joined the academe for the first time, some thirteen years back, I was already having doubts whether I can cope with the demands of this profession.  The teaching profession requires bags of brain inputs and continuous professional education.  I thought it was even impossible for me to last for at least ten years in this field.  The last fifteen years of my employment before this were spent in corporate jobs with a maximum of five years in one company.  I landed with five employers within those fifteen years.

I was simply amazed while taking into account the number of years in service of those teachers and instructors ahead of my time. I was humbled of their patience and unquenchable desire to teach.  I felt like a hopping insect or more so, a rolling and tumbling stone so smooth and shiny, for not a moss had stick to it.  I felt like a disable in contrast of their great ability to stay in one job for such extensive years.

But is it really that “love of work” which kept them dormant in one type of job for such lengthy period?   Was it only due to the fact that their long years of exposure to the profession developed their liking to this noble tasking, which they now called love?  Or is it because they have no other choice but to like or love the job as they say, because they have no other possibilities in other work areas?  I wanted to know the true meaning of this so called “love of work” they are bragging before my face because I am sure I don’t have it at that moment and how to acquire or develop it, was still unknown to me.  Am I missing something in my journey as I jump from one employer to another?  The only thing I learned from my previous work is to have a sound performance in every task assigned to me in accordance with my job description to get a good rating and sufficient compensation.  That’s it.  That was not love of work.