The Hamster is a Metaphor

The other day, someone said to me...

At first I wasn't sure how to respond, because in all honesty, I haven't really thought about it a ton. I mean, right now I answer phones and emails and sit in a cubicle and doodle on post-it notes all day.

It's not exactly something you dream about as a child, although secretly I always thought it would be awesome to have my own cubicle with one of those cat posters...

I don't know how I made it this far without deciding on a dream job, but I honestly never have thought to myself, "All I want out of life is to be a... figure skater. Or something."

But of course, you can't just say that you don't have aspirations when someone asks you a question like that, so I said what came to my head first.

"Well obviously I'd just want my blog to start making tons of money so I could sit around in my house and draw cartoon picture drawings all day and not have to wear pants."

Seems like a good answer to me, right? Because who wants to wear pants, really. 

"It's been done before," I said, "There are people out there that make enough money from ad revenue and merchandise sales that they never have to wear pants EVER!"

And then someone else said...

"Yeah, but those people write about things that people want to read about. You'd never make any sort of money off your blog..."

"Whatever!" I said, "You don't know!" I said.

Because really...

This blog is kinda the only thing I have in my life right now that I'm proud of.

I mean, I'm proud of my husband and his accomplishments, and I'm proud of my family and friends and all the awesome things that they do and the choices they make and the goals they achieve. 

But do you know what I do in my life? 

I go to work. 

I answer phones, I type emails, I copy and paste until my hands start to cramp up. And I work hard and I do well and I feel good about the work that I do, but in the end... all I've done is a lot of drone work. I enjoy helping people, and I save all the "thank you" emails I receive, but at the same time I don't feel like I've really changed someone's life or anything. 

I go home.

I wash dishes, I go grocery shopping, I clean the apartment, I cook dinner, I pay bills, I do laundry, I watch television. These are all important things and I work hard at them and I feel good when I do them, but when it comes down to it... these are just things I have to do to survive and maintain a household. I do them because they need to be done, and I'm the one to do them.

I even play in the marching band.

But I just play chords on a keyboard. I push a couple buttons. If I weren't there to play, someone else could push the buttons and no one would know the difference. As long as the buttons get pushed, it doesn't matter who's pushing them.

But I have this blog.

I don't have hamsters to keep me company while I'm home alone anymore, but there will always be the hamster in my life.

And do you know why?

Because the hamster is a METAPHOR.

This blog is

NOT

ABOUT

HAMSTERS.

It says it right there at the top of the page.  "ALSO SOME WORDS ABOUT OTHER THINGS" Learn to read, bro.

This is the one thing in my life that is really, truly mine, and that I can genuinely be proud of. I work hard at this, and when it's done, it's something that exists for the sole purpose of making other people happy. I don't draw out of necessity, I don't write to feed my family, I create things because I want to help other people. 

And maybe it doesn't change your life or inspire you or motivate you to go on to do bigger and better things.

But I know what it's like to not feel good about your life. I know what it feels like to think that everything you do is completely pointless, and you're more or less alone in this world.

And that's why I write this blog. 

It's not my dream job to make tons of money from drawing pictures and writing words, it's my dream job to help people. Even if I don't get paid for it, even if it's not feeding starving children in Africa, even if I'm never famous, even if I don't win a Nobel Peace Prize or have my picture on the front of People Magazine. 

If I can just make one person feel better, just once, then that's what I do this for.

I was going to write a really funny post about my husband, and then I was going to say something about the fact that we've been married for well over a quarter of a year now, and then I was going to tell more humorous stories about weird dreams that I've had...

But this is what came out of my mind.

I like people. I like them a lot. I like you. Even if I don't know you, even if I've openly pronounced my disdain for you. 

I like you because you're a person, and all people deserve to be liked. 

So bring it in, guys.

Yeah, that's it. We're all in this together. It's okay to be who you are, and other inspirational stuff.

So screw you, guy who said that about my blog. I like what I do.

Hater.