I’m talking about the pleasure one takes in not just doing a very difficult job well, but actually enjoying it in the process. There is something deliciously satisfying about the whole thing…
A job most people couldn’t do, nor would they want to even if they could. A job so hard, most people in the same profession want nothing to do with it. A job with non stop stress, where people are dying right under your hands, and it somehow begins to seem as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
But for you it feels like home, like this is your comfort zone. When you can pull this off for a 12 and a half hour shift like it’s just another day in the office, you feel like you’ve actually done something useful. You begin to feel like you’re part of an elite club that most people have no idea it even exists.
If the job in question is that of an ER nurse, be fucking proud of it. Take a minute to feel good about yourself. At the end of your shift, go home and get some rest – hopefully you’ll live another day and be able to do it all over again.
Enjoy the feeling of knowing you tried to help others in need, and maybe, for a brief moment, you succeeded. And if, despite your best efforts, you think you fell short – there’s always tomorrow.