It Builds Character...

When I was growing up, my father owned and operated a gardening business - he took care of the landscaping for houses and apartment complexes throughout parts of central California.  Pruning, mowing, raking - all the yard work nobody wants to do, but which my dad genuinely enjoyed.  And every summer he would take his kids out to work with him.  Most kids clean up their room or help with their own yard and then receive an allowance.  Instead, we went to work for my dad and received a paycheck.  Sounds pretty nice, right?  That depends.  

As a kid, I enjoyed this work about as much having my wisdom teeth pulled (if you've never had the experience, it's not fun).  Central California is hot - the temperature rises above 100 degrees for up to a few weeks each summer, making yard work loads of fun.  And the work itself was physically demanding to the extreme.  Carrying trash can after trash can of leaves to the dumpster, walking behind lawn mowers for who knows what distance (wanted to shout "Hallelujah" the day we finally bought a riding lawn mower), carrying machinery in my hands for hours, etc., all the while trying not to get heat stroke.  We each brought a frozen gallon of water with us, which we drank to the last drop as it melted throughout the day.  My mom would make us a large breakfast every morning because, as my dad would say, "if you're going to work like a horse, you have to eat like a horse."  We started early to avoid the heat, and ended whenever we finished.  And at the end of most days I was so worn out that sometimes I just wanted to shower and go to sleep.

Like I said, I didn't care for it much at the time.  But as I look back on the experiences of my life, there are very few experiences that have shaped me the way this early work experience did.  It's obviously not because of the skills I learned, though it has indirectly helped me with every job I've had since.  It's the way it shaped me as a person.  It reminds me of the old sayings, "It builds character" or "One day you'll thank me."  It would have driven me crazy if my dad had told me that at the time.  But today I can look back and say that I am genuinely grateful for the experience - both for what it taught me and how it shaped me.  I didn't appreciate it then, but I do now. I suspect that if we look closely, there are experiences like that in all of our lives - ones that were challenging and difficult, ones that we wished we didn't have to go through at the time, but to which we can look back in gratitude for what those experiences have done for us.  Sometimes we just need to open our eyes to recognize them.

Comic by Bill Watterson