Best Job

While I've held a lot of high profile and lucrative positions, the job I loved the most was the one where my pockets smelled of dog cookies and my lab coat was etched with permanent drool trails.

After that horrible week as a telemarketer, I found a job that was tailor-made for me. For several years I worked as a veterinary technician. I came aboard initially as kennel help, but it seems I made an impression on the cranky old vet known for his fiery temper.

Like all the others who came before, he ran me through the ringers. He was renown for driving young women to tears with his gruff demeanor, but I realized early on that he was testing his employees. He wanted to see what you were made of.

Every day was a battle of wits between us. Every time I mastered something new, he'd throw another gauntlet down, just to see if I would crumble under the pressure of added responsibilities. Call it kismet, but I'm one of those idiots who thrive under pressure. Maybe it's because I was young and felt I had something to prove.

Before I knew it, he had invited me into his surgery to watch and learn.

I started with the menial tasks of cleaning up after surgery, then pre-op, and finally administering anesthesia. I loved it all. Who could have guessed I had an aptitude for medicine?

My greatest victory was the day he found me poring over one of his veterinary books. Thinking I was loafing, he grilled me to see if I had accomplished all my duties for the day. He rattled off one task after another and each time I assured him it was done to his specifications.

Frustrated, he grabbed one of the surgical packs, (a wrapped packaged of surgical instruments already sterilized and ready for use) and unwrapped it to see if I had screwed anything up in putting it together.

He examined each instrument with the scrutiny of a hanging judge. Finally, he tossed the opened pack on an examination table and said in his loud, booming voice, "Well, I'll be damned."

I had passed his last test. We got to be friends after that and more than once he offered to sponsor me at A&M University's veterinary program. It was a tempting offer, but I was still a new wife and A&M was many miles away. I couldn't see leaving my husband for that many years while I earned my doctorate.

I loved my job though. It was the kind of job I couldn't wait to start every morning. And I had learned more from that cranky old man than I ever did anywhere else. He was my mentor and I will always be grateful for the opportunity he gave me.

When I look back at all the jobs I've held, that's the one I point to and say: That was the best. It was the most fulfilling job I ever had.


What was your best job? Why did you love it?