“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” goes the saying.
If I can be really honest here, I want to punch someone who says that to me. Hard. Preferably in the face. Yes. It’s true.
I DO do what I love. I love playing the cello. I love practising and exploring new and old repertoire. I love teaching and sharing the love I have of music. I can’t imagine not doing any of this.
But it is work.
I teach on days when I’m tired and my back is sore. I don’t want to be reasonable when a child complains that they have the wrong colour kazoo. I want to be at a cafe having a coffee and a muffin, rather than having been at school an hour before the kids come getting all the instruments out for the day, putting them back at the end of it and then seeing lesson after lesson of kids. It’s work.
I practise on days when I feel like curling up in bed. Or when I’m panicked at the amount of notes I have to learn. Or my eyes are tired. Or I’d rather be out with friends. I sit, sometimes for hours and work. Because I have to.
I sit updating social media, or listening to recordings that need editing, or devise programs (which take a long time, surprisingly) when I don’t really want to. Sometimes this is fun. But sometimes it’s not. Again, it’s work.
Having written all that, some days it’s excellent. I leap out of bed, and love sitting and practising. My body feels good. My brain is on and well-rested. I love leaping around a classroom. But it’s not always like that.
It is fabulous doing something you love. I wouldn’t do anything else.
But it is work.