They say that if you love what you do, you'll never "work" a day in your life. It's a common phrase, but we almost never meet anyone who is actually living the dream ... til now.
Reddit user -thelastbyte asked:
People who actually like their jobs, what do you do for a living?
It turns out, it's not the multi-millionaires who are out here touting their love for their jobs. These are simple people who have simple, quirky, average kinds of jobs. These people aren't out here raking in the dough. They're just doing what they love - which looks very different for all of them - and legitimately enjoying it.
It's honestly kind of inspirational.
Party Princess
I'm a party princess. I dress up and act as a princess at children's birthday parties. I always loved signing and somewhat acting so it's great to put these skills to use. I also love making children smile. It's great job for me because it's part time and not always at the same time every weekend so as a student its the perfect job. I also like the fact that for every party I have almost no idea what to expect: it keeps me on my toes and my improv skills sharp.
Props
I do onset props in television and film. The hours are nuts, but I get to work with some awesome people on some awesome projects.
Catering To Your Inner Child
I nanny. I play, I make up games, I read awesome books out loud. I come up with art projects. I sing loudly in the car. I comfort and cuddle kids.
I talk to growing minds about what's going on in the world. We talk about their day. What was good what was hard. I get to tease them. I watch their performances. I make dope snacks. I watch soccer games.
Overall, it's a really fun job, but the most important thing is finding the right family.
Icy Patience
GiphyI'm a jeweler. I work for a small shop that specializes in custom design and manufacture, restoration, and in house repair. We work with mostly fine and unusual colored stones and gem minerals, but if you really want a diamond we can call our vendor and he'll memo it in.
As far as the custom work goes, I'm in the same class as, say, a coach whip salesman or a corset stay manufacturer-- it's a niche field with no mobility and only moderate pay, using methods that the industry has largely abandoned. I don't print, grow, render or program the jewelry pieces - I create hand drawn isometric designs to scale, then carve the waxes or do the fabrication all by hand.
I do enjoy it, I work with my hands and am able to be creative, solve problems and create beautiful things, but there are also plenty of moments such as sometimes during stone setting where I think "alright, I'm about to take this shiny rock that cost as much as a decent car, and push metal over it using a tiny jackhammer."
Don't mess this up.
A certain amount of icy patience is a good resource to have lol.
Miracle Worker
I work as a case manager for an eviction prevention program in my local government. Basically, I hand out free money ($2000 per family) to people who are incredibly stressed out and hoping for a miracle. I get to ensure that people stay in their homes, and I help them find access to affordable child care, better employment, and food. I often work with teachers, single moms, veterans, and the elderly. People are so incredibly grateful and sweet, and I love being the person who gets to call and say "Good news! You get to stay in your home and your next month of rent is covered!" They often cry, which then makes me cry, and the best part is I get to manage their case for another 3 months to set them up for success.
Bonus: the presentation I created for our program is being shown in Washington, DC next summer, and we might help encourage other states to hop on board!
Cemetery Summers
I work at a cemetery and live there rent free and love it.
Cut grass in summer , rake leaves in fall , and maintenance . Mostly landscape work. It's quiet and nobody ever bothers you. I make my own hours. I can take a 2 hour lunch if I want. As long as the place is clean the board of directors don't care. best part is I live in the shed free of charge. go to the gym everyday to work out and take a shower. No stress lifestyle. Sometimes I stay at my girlfriends place when I have one. Go out bowling with the guys a couple nights a week in leagues. Sports bars for the games. I'm living an Uncle Buck Life and love it. Have over 7 figures in investments . IRA's and stocks. Go to Hawaii or Key West Florida in the winter.
Celebrity Chef
I'm a server in a restaurant owned by a celebrity chef. Only work 32-34 hours a week. Consistently make about $1400/week before taxes. 401k is matched. Eat two meals prepared by professional chefs everyday I work. Bring home free bottles of wine to "study" so I'm capable of describing it to our guests. Only work nights so I sleep in til at least noon everyday.
Dirty And Dirt Poor
I am an on-call bioarchaeologist. I go to incredible places few in this world get to see. I look at human bones to analyze who they may be and why they are there. I have been on high mountaintops and deep into caves. No one cares if I look clean and neat because I have no one to impress. In fact, it is preferred I return from a site covered in mud and dirt. I work hard, sleep well, and sometimes get invited to colleges to speak to students interested in archaeology. I publish my research and present my adventures at academic conferences.
Like all archaeologists I am poor as can be but what I lack in financial gains is more than balanced by spreading knowledge.
Books Yes, People No
Librarian. I freaking LOVE my job. I love to read, and love the smell of books and paper. I love the wealth of information I read, and I love to help people find answers in my resources or just doing research myself (my library is focused on education-research).
I love my job, but sometimes it's the people I can't stand.
Sounds Lame
I wash dishes.
Sounds lame, but it isn't.
I get the same schedule every week and it's good hours, I make more than minimum wage, I get bonus checks on holidays and have other benefits like insurance and more PTO than my state mandates, and that's just the tip of the iceberg
We're allowed to wear earbuds at work and listen to music as long as we keep one earbud out for safety reasons
I have really great managers and all my coworkers are great people who are just a TREAT to work with (seriously, they're like family. It's awesome. I love being around them).
I get $14 free to spend on food every day that I'm at work, so 5 days a week. It's really, really good food. I've tried nearly everything we sell and I haven't yet tried something I didn't LOVE. It's really good food.
There's so much more but in the interest of time I'll leave it here.
- MC_Crit
Clean
GiphyYes a question I can answer!
I'm a janitor! I love being a janitor. Why? Because I have OCD!!! I love cleaning. I don't care about poop or mess anywhere. I will clean it. I want things to shine and look amazing.
I'm so happy too because I have a state job as a janitor. So I don't make regular pay. And that makes me even happier. I feel so relieved going home knowing my building is spotless clean.
Wanna know the best part? Since I clean trash a lot I find some amazing throw away. Someone threw away an old stereo and I took it home to make it into a nice decoration.
Another plus side is since I clean out the recycling bin. I can take home the cans and bottles to recycle for extra money. It's so awesome.
I clean at work and get paid well. Then I go home and clean some more.
Another plus is no one talks to me. Occasionally people say hi and I do too. But no one talks to me so I can listen to my favorite podcast all day!
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.