Cowboying

Even though I am an educator, I work/live in a community full of cowboys – the REAL work-in-the-saddle-break-horses-manage-cattle-mend-fences kind of cowboys.

Here’s what their jobs look like: 

• Short pay

• Long days

• Crappy weather (at least half the time)

• Uncooperative clients (cattle – bulls especially – have a mind of their own)

• No or few holidays (animals still have to be fed on Memorial Day)

• Unexpected catastrophes (floods, drought, wildfire, etc.)

• Dangerous conditions (there is always some cowboy in our community on crutches or in a cast)

• Never ending maintenance obligations (fences are always down, colts always need breaking)

• No such thing as early retirement

So, why would anyone do this job?  

The cowboys I know LOVE it.  Many of the ones I know have college degrees and could be working in an air-conditioned office somewhere.

The cowboys I work among have chosen to make a living at doing what they love, despite the obvious drawbacks and limitations.

Finding, and doing, work we love is essential to our long-term health and happiness.  It is almost always found at the intersection of 

vocation     and     avocation.  

(the job)               (the passion)