Reasons Why I Love My Job #1

by Crazy Ivan

For those that are new to the Myachi Blog, I should start by mentioning that I've had a running series of blog entries since this thing started where I list some of my favorite parts of the job.  In the past they've had titles like Reasons Why I Love My Job #63, Reasons Why I Love My Job #106 or Reasons Why I Love My Job #22.

But since I've been at Dollywood, I've been constantly reminded why I loved this job first.  As many of you know, Dollywood was my first Myachi assignment and it was through my hard work and dedication that first summer that I earned the title "Myachi Master".  And there was no question that I wanted to earn that title.  I knew from my first day with Myachi that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life.

So I'm not going to assign some random number to this blog.  This is, in at least two senses, the number one reason why I love my job.  And it's pretty simple.  It's the people I meet.

This summer, I've already met more incredibly cool people than I can possibly list.  Punisher, who dominated our golf contests for a while and thought of a ton of cool challenges off the top of our tent.  Taylor and Zach who chilled at the booth all day for a week and a half helping us spread the word and convincing their dad to win them nearly a full series of sacks.  Blackout, who comes back after a week jamming like he's been doing this for months.  The mad cool martial artist I met the other day who was tossing the Myachi in the air, doing a standing backflip and then trying to catch it (and he got so close...).  Gabriel, whose enthusiasm made the whole last half of my day worth waking up for all by itself.  The little two year old who kept tossing the Myachi from his palm and was too cute to dissuade (he tied for the win on a contest, by the way.  The guy he tied with was a mad cool juggler that stepped in against a bunch of kids that had been practicing all day).

And that's only people I've seen in the last couple of days.  There are literally hundreds of names that could be added to that list.

There is no question that the best thing about Myachi is the people.  The people I work with are the coolest group of individuals I've ever met (and possibly the coolest ever assembled), but that only scratches the surface.  The maniacs I know through our online community, the maniacs I know from the dozens of places I've demoed, the maniacs I've met at the hundreds of parties, school assemblies and private events we've done and, of course, the new maniacs I meet every day.

It really doesn't matter how much I sweat, how long the hours or how hot it gets.  When your job is to hang out with cool people and do something cool while meeting other cool people, it never really feels like work.