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I understand exactly what you are saying, and I appreciate your response very much.

My dad purchased a large industrial building when I was in junior high school. The people he leased it to were lumber brokers and they told him the real money was in lumber remanufacturing which means turning rough wood into finished products such as paneling, flooring, siding, etc...

My dad sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into this business and by the time that I had finished my first year of college he was on the verge of bankruptcy. I got sucked into the lumber business and spent eight years of my life trying to make it work. At first it was a bit of an adventure, but I was at the place 7 days a week and to get out important orders on time I would often work for up to 36 hours without sleep. After a while it became pure drudgery and I hated it. I had no social life and I had to give up bicycle racing which had been my obsession. During high school I worked part time at night as a janitor to support my cycling but between school and work I was always able to fit in my training and racing schedule.

So that is one of the reasons why I had to laugh at the author of the article who described a job where the young lady was interacting with people all day and helping them with their exercise routines as a ““grueling 12 hour/day job”. After 8 years of a truly grueling job I went back to school to work on becoming an engineer. My work study jobs were first helping students with their math and reading homework and later I worked in the computer lab. I didn’t even consider those jobs work because I enjoyed the social interaction so much and I got a regular pay check. And then I tested well on a civil service test and became a firefighter which was quite an adventure as well.