A regular feature of etsy's on the Storque is the "Quit Your Day Job" section, where crafters explain how they managed to cast free their work lives and become full time crafters. This is presented as the ultimate dream of crafting and crafters everywhere.
Over the last few weeks, as we stare down the state budget crisis in Massachusetts, I've been thinking a lot about my Day Job. As I mention occasionally, I work with adults with developmental disabilities at a day habilitation service. We're funded by the state of Massachusetts, and our continued survival is still looking a little hairy (on a side note, if you're from Mass, write to your state senator!). It's certainly given me an opportunity to think about my Day Job as compared to my crocheting.
Facing the possibility of not having any continued employment, I realized something. I don't want to quit my day job.Yes, I do love to crochet, and maybe I would do it full time if forced to, but what I get out of my Day Job is more than medical insurance and a paycheck (although those are nice, and I would take more paychecks if they start giving them out).
My day job is challenging-- in fact, a little more than I would sometimes like. Designing activities that the group of individuals I am responsible for is incredibly challenging. These adults are faced with disability, age, vision issues, hearing loss, and in some cases years of living in institutional settings. It takes everything I have to come up with and adapt activities for them. I'm constantly picking the brains of anyone I come across for more ideas, and anyone who's met me for more than five minutes quickly learns all about my job as I pump them for ideas.
But when the ideas work, my job is rewarding. The triumphs are usually small by some standards, but they mean a lot to me. With the group of people I used to work with, I was pleased if they completed a craft activity start to finish by themselves. With my current group, I'm happy when people engage in activities. Today, for the first time, an individual that I've never been able to engage in an activity painted independently with a paintbrush taped to a 36" dowel (if you haven't tried this before, it's fun. Cover a wall with paper, then stand or sit 3 feet away and pain). We had a party. And I know I'm making a difference, if only a small one.
What can sometimes be just as important, though, is that I work with great people at my day job. As much as administration can drive us all insane, as much as we fight as though we're related, I work with an incredible bunch of people who are just as crazy as I am. I would miss them just as much as the individuals that I work with if we had to close down.
Someday, I may be at a different place in my life, and I may feel differently. I may burn out eventually, it's a tough field to stay in, and a lot of people do. But for right now, what I want most, career wise, is to see day habilitation keep being funded and to be able to get up and go to my Day Job every morning.
Amigurumi Squid
