The Work I Love

Giorgio Ramondetta views Jan van de Cappelle’s Shipping in a Calm at Flushing with a States General Yacht Firing a Salute (1649) at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

It’s Wednesday, and the week is almost half over. I’ve spent only one day in the office so far, but it was a very busy one. Today will likely be no different. In fact, I doubt there will be a single day this week when I find myself wondering what to do. Emails, meetings, training sessions, and preparations for upcoming classes are more than enough to fill my days.

Don’t think I’m complaining. I love being busy with these kinds of tasks. They make the day pass much faster. I often become so absorbed in what I’m doing that when I finally look at the clock, I’m surprised by how much time has passed. If my days were filled with activities I dreaded, it would be altogether different. Instead, much of what I’m doing this week—and, I hope, throughout the semester—is the part of my job I enjoy most.

Things are not perfect at work, but I genuinely love the work I do.

Part of my job involves welcoming our guests. Sometimes it is a special dignitary visiting campus who wants a tour of the museum. Other times it is a scholar who has come to speak as part of our lecture series, and I have the opportunity to entertain them, show them some of Vermont, and take them out to dinner. It is a role for which I am particularly well suited. Being from the South and growing up in an environment where good manners and hospitality were expected prepared me well for this aspect of my job. I have a reputation within the university for being able to welcome and entertain dignitaries, while our museum has earned a wider reputation among some prestigious cultural institutions for the hospitality we provide our guests. I take a great deal of pride in that.

Then there is the academic side of my job. I get to teach history through artifacts. In some classes, I teach students how to analyze and interpret objects. Sometimes, I tell the history of particular artifacts, while other sessions involve tours of the museum or its collections. Each class is different, and each gives me another opportunity to help students understand that objects are more than simply things displayed behind glass. They can reveal stories about the people who made, owned, used, exchanged, or preserved them.

I enjoy working with our students because, for the most part, they are well behaved, polite, and willing to engage. Best of all, I get to teach and prepare lessons without having to grade papers and exams, which was always the bane of my existence when I taught in a more traditional setting. I receive the parts of teaching that I love without being burdened by the part I dreaded most.

Of course, there are difficult personalities to contend with from time to time. I’m not paid enough, and there are certainly mornings when I would rather remain at home with Isabella. No job—and no workplace—is perfect. Still, when I consider the work itself, I know how fortunate I am.

After all, how many people can genuinely say, “I love the work I do”?