If you are fortunate enough to be employed, take a second to contemplate for a moment what you do at your job.
This subject has been on my mind a lot lately, especially as I meet more people who do unusual, stressful or complex jobs.
I met with two antique dealers yesterday for a story I wrote for another one of our publications.
The couple loves antiques. I mean, love. They could talk about antiques all day, and I don’t mean that in a negative way.
It’s what they are passionate about, and it’s also what they are very, very good at.
One of the dealers can spot whether an item is worth anything in a matter of seconds; the other is an expert on vintage clothing.
They totally understand that not everyone shares their passion or is as knowledgeable as they are.
We talked about how I have to meet daily deadlines, and how I was turning the story around when I got back so I could lay out the pages for that newspaper.
The one dealer said she could never do that, just as I couldn’t imagine keeping a mental encyclopedia of hundreds of antiques.
Not because I think what they do is meaningless or silly — I am totally blown away by their expertise and think it’s a cool career.
Journalists often joke about how they are terrible at math or science. It’s a writing- and language-heavy profession that requires strong English skills, although having a little bit of knowledge in everything certainly helps.
I wish I had taken more government and history classes when I was in school.
I have a friend in Florida who is a technical writer for a company that writes environmental reports for oil companies.
Can’t say I would want to be in her shoes right now, but she’s great at what she does.
I have another friend in Minnesota who works on an assembly line for 3M. She makes electrical tape every day.
I can’t imagine doing it, but somebody’s got to, and she enjoys the hours and benefits.
I see our advertising team making calls every day to area businesses.
I briefly sold classified ads at a previous job and would never do it again.
It takes a certain kind of person to work in sales, and I am not one of them. Our paper wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have salespeople, though.
I grew up in a family of funeral directors. Obviously I didn’t take over the family business, and neither did my brother, who is also in newspapers.
It takes all kinds of people to make the world work — something to think about when you’re yelling at the Wal-Mart cashier in the checkout line or the customer service representative on the phone.

Katie Johnson is managing editor of the Niles Daily Star, Cassopolis Vigilant, Edwardsburg Argus and Off the Water.
E-mail her at katie.johnson@leaderpub.com.