Any other Monday, we would all be getting dressed and ready for our jobs, chasing kids trying to ready them for school or doing whatever it is we "do" on a regular basis. But today is Labor Day, so we take a break, a day of rest from our normal.
Which got me thinking about the role our jobs play in our lives.
The amount of job titles out there is kind of staggering. It's amazing that we have the freedom to pursue our dreams, work towards goals and even get paid for working.
But sometimes in the midst of going to and from work and home, the delicate balancing act we all play in some way or another, we can get lost in that job title.
At some point- whenever we cross the gap from childhood into adulthood- people stop asking us what we want to
be
and instead as us what we
do
. As if everything we are is encompassed in this one word that we get paid to do- waitress, teacher, ceo, lawyer, stay at home mom or perhaps even (God-forbid) unemployed. All our lives we are encouraged to dream about who we want to be when we grow up but once you are handed that diploma, or if you don't get one of those it's even sooner, we are expected to know who we are and stop dreaming- most of who we are is wrapped up in a job title.
But in reality we are so much more than that. I'm not just a stay at home mom or a writer. I'm a friend, a daughter, a wife, an introvert, someone who dreams of owning her own coffee shop, someone who really wants to travel the world, and someone who has a really immature sense of humor sometimes.
You're not
just
a teacher or a student or a writer or the drive through guy at Wendy's.
I think it is a little disheartening that we unknowingly place ourselves in the limiting box of "what do you do?" Our job title is only a small piece of the complexities and intricacies that make us up.
So this Labor Day, as you're taking a break from what you do, pause to think about who you really are. So that next time someone asks you what you do, you can answer with more than a job title.
So tell me, friends. What do you do?