Why I Love My Job

I realized that I perhaps ought to clarify why I love my job, instead of just stating that I do love it. So, here are the reasons I love teaching Spanish:

1) I get to do something different every day. Not just different tasks. Some days involve more direct instruction, other days involve student-led activities. If a particular topic is difficult or boring, the next section of grammar or vocabulary is often interesting. I love my job because I don't feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over, and there is progression.

2) I can move around! I can be in my office, in the classroom, at my desk, at the whiteboard, standing in the back to watch student presentations, roaming the room to make sure everyone is speaking Spanish, etc. Once upon a time I had a job as an editor. The company for which I worked was great ("Fun" was one of their top ten core values) and I had great coworkers, and of course I enjoy editing, but every day I would arrive and sit for several hours at the same desk in the same cubicle staring at the same computer and doing similar, repetitive things.

3) I get to interact with people. Again, as much as I love reading, writing, and proper grammar and spelling, being alone eventually makes me feel isolated and sullen. Interacting with people gets me outside my own brain and gives me new perspectives. Plus, people are just plain interesting.

4) I have creative control. This is similar to being able to do something different every day. Even though I usually follow a syllabus prepared by a world languages department, I can take the day's topic (exciting things like "Indirect Object Pronouns" and "Food-Related Vocabulary" and do almost whatever I want with it. We can play games, have conversations, perform skits, fill out worksheets, create menus, role-play, or do a number of things. It's a fun challenge trying to guarantee that neither my students nor I become bored with material.

5) I get to help people. (I must note here that a number of my students might claim that forcing them to learn Spanish is not helping them. They are wrong.) There is nothing more fun that seeing something click in a person's brain. Through explanations, input, guided practice, and structured output, I can help people learn to communicate in another language. Students go from knowing very little Spanish to writing entire compositions, and there is something so exciting to me about being part of that.

That's why I love my job.

So now my question for you all is (and this is assuming you love all or part of what you do): Why do you love your job? Whether you work full- or part-time time, inside or outside the home, why do you love what you do? It's fun finding out what people enjoy because then you get to know them better.