On a daily basis, most of us are asked "How was work today?" It's an innocent enough question meant to do no more than begin a conversation by extracting information. Having someone ask HWWT is harmless and usually said without too much thought behind it. HWWT isn't a trick question unless asked with a suspicious tone by someone trying to trap a cheating spouse whom they suspect spent the afternoon in a downtown pay-by-the-hour motel with some cheap floozie after downing three martinis at lunch.
Answering HWWT should be easy. Usually the response is a quick "Fine" before moving on to the more pressing questions of when's dinner and what's on TV. Sometimes the response is a bit more complicated. A realtor, for instance, might recount that day's struggles of open houses and unrealistic home buyers. A registered nurse could talk about juggling the demands of needy patients and having to complete too much paperwork. And while that realtor answers HWWT with an "I spent almost all day traipsing from one house to the next..." and that nurse says "I had two patients who coded and needed the crash cart..." my answer could very well be more along the lines of "Today I read Click, Clack, Moo and made cow noises with a group of preschoolers."
It's not exactly what you expect a middle aged man to say about his workday.
I run reading programs for elementary school children. It's certainly an honorable enough way to make a living but sometimes, especially when describing it to people I've just met, it seems a little, well, odd. Imagine for a moment you're at a black-tie fundraising dinner and Mr. 30-Year-Old-Investment-Banker who just bankrolled a fifty thousand dollar bonus leans over the table and asks what you do. And now imagine saying "Well, today I really struggled with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Those rhymes can be a real tongue twister!" You can bet Mr. Investment Banker will now move on and talk to someone else.
The truth is, I spend a fair amount of time at work leading presentations in the boardrooms of very large corporations, trying to find financial and volunteer support for the agency. And I can often be found in meetings with school administration, planning out new programs to reach additional students. But I'm just as likely to spend part of my day trying out different voices to be a convincing Grinch as he scowls down at the Who's of Whoville or doing research on books that have the potential to make a classroom filled with 6 year old kids giggle. And it's that part - unfortunately the more fun part - that's beginning to feel a tad undignified for a man my age, leading me to wonder if it's time to move on.
Don't get me wrong. My job has some wonderful perks. I have the opportunity to see young children become excited about reading. I get hugged on a fairly regular basis. One year as school came to a close, a first grade boy gave me a note that read "I will miss you. You are my best friend." That card means more to me than a corner office and a fat expense account. Still...
Maybe it's just my mid life crisis calling. Maybe many of us begin to question where we are and where we want to be when we hit our 40's. Maybe the next time I sit down with a group of kids and manage to reach them through Harry Potter or Clifford the Big Red Dog, I'll feel silly for questioning if I should be doing something else. And maybe, hopefully, the next time someone asks "How was work today?" I can loudly exclaim "Fantastic!" and completely mean it.
