The semester after I got my Master’s, I had a brief gym membership, for the same reason most people get gym memberships–I wanted to get in shape and feel good about myself. The trouble was, I hated the gym. I hated the monotony of machines and strangers’ eyes on me. Maybe this daily dose of doing something I hated would have been worthwhile if I were stopping by the gym on my way home from a fulfilling job that I loved. Unfortunately, the gym tacked on an extra punishing hour to a day that already felt like punishment–my first “real” job, proofreading ads at a phone book company, which is exactly as exciting as it sounds, which is to say soul-sucking.
The thing is, everything I was doing was “good for me,” at least on paper. I had to have a full-time job, and while I didn’t “have to” exercise, I knew I should. However, I was trying so hard to be good, to be responsible, to be healthy, I completely forgot to try to be happy.
I agree that it’s important to do things we don’t like–sometimes. That’s part of being a person, and especially part of being an adult. We have to get up earlier than we would like, pay taxes, clean our houses. It’s inevitable that we’ll do things we don’t like sometimes, and there is value in learning to accept that as part of life and try to make the most of it–appreciate the sunrise on the drive to work, consider what we’ll do with the tax refund, catch up on a podcast while we clean.
As important as it is to do things we don’t like sometimes, I think it’s even more crucial that we remember that life is not a to-do list. Joy is not a luxury. Joy should be our guiding force. Twenty years later, I still have a full-time job, and I still prioritize exercise. The difference between then and now is that now I have a job and an exercise routine that I love. Obviously, my job is working here, where I get to share favorite books with hilarious and interesting students. For exercise, my husband and I take our three dogs on two-hour walks through the Baker Wetlands. Those walks are the opposite of my gym experience–time incredibly well spent, catching up with my husband and taking in a beautiful view.
