Writing perfect job for visually stimulated worker

I like to work.

I like to do real work.

When I work, I want to make sure that I'm actually accomplishing something. I like to see the fruits of my labor. I like to see and feel something come together in my hands. I like to know that the product of my work will serve to benefit someone else.

I have worked in jobs where this wasn't the case. I once sold cellular phone service for CellularONE, a now defunct company that had horrible deals and crappy service for my area, and I knew it. I wasn't accomplishing any real task with the work, and I sure as hell wasn't benefiting anyone.

I once worked for the Gallup Organization as a dinner ruiner. It was my job to call people while they were having dinner to see if they wanted to answer any questions. Even when they did, the information that I collected didn't serve anyone, it just went into a computer so businesses could pretend to use it.

I have to know that I am doing and making something worthwhile when I work. I can't do a job if the job has no purpose. I can't do a job if I can't see the product of anything I do. That's why I hated CellONE and Gallup so much. There was no purpose, and I couldn't see the product of my work. Even when I worked at a Wal-Mart, I could at least look back on a freshly faced row and see how organized I had made everything.

My favorite job I've ever had was as a chef in my hometown's nicest restaurant when I still went to high school. Cooking is the ultimate job for someone like me. There is nothing more satisfying than taking a variety of raw ingredients and working with them until I have a beautifully arranged, heavenly smelling and exquisitely seasoned plate of hot, steamy goodness. The thought of the customer's face, as the waitress sets the plate down in front of them, and them taking their first bite and thinking, "Damn, this is good," is one of my ultimate satisfactions.

In most of the jobs I've had, I've never had quite the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment that I got when I was a chef. It is the ultimate make-something-from-nothing work.

Let me give you an example: If I was going to make a pan-seared garlic and basil chicken breast, I would start with a variety of individual, raw ingredients. I would take a raw chicken breast and soak it in olive oil, white wine vinegar, thyme, parsley, kosher salt and cracked pepper. Already I can see the bland white chicken breast becoming a tender and beautifully colored piece of work.

I would melt butter in a saucepan and add garlic that I myself minced from a whole clove. I let it caramelize. Add the chicken breast along with some extra basil and a bay leaf and let it sear itself to a perfect golden brown.

There is nothing like taking the raw ingredients I have prepared and watching them turn into something glorious in front of me. There is no satisfaction like that in the world.

Some of you may be suspicious of me, though. You may say, "Casey, if you have such trouble with jobs where you don't do anything, why are you a writer? All you do is talk to people and then write what they say. Is that anything?"

I would say to you, yes, writing is anything. Writing is actually a lot like cooking in many ways. In cooking, I take raw ingredients and I add them all together in creative ways until I have a finished dish. Writing is no different. I take raw ingredients and I add them all together in creative ways until I have a finished piece.

Let me explain: In cooking, the raw ingredients are chicken, flour, salt, pepper, lime juice, Tabasco, hot chilies, olive oil and Corona. The finished dish is Corona Pollo Diablo.

In writing, the ingredients are people, places, statements, events, emotions, feelings, findings, discoveries, epiphanies and caffeine. The finished piece is a piece of literature, an article, a screenplay, etc.

Just as there is nothing more satisfying in cooking than seeing that finished dish hit the table and make someone smile, there is nothing like seeing that finished piece of writing in print, being distributed to entertain and inform the masses.

Writing is my ultimate job. In no other occupation could the fruits of my labor be more apparent. I take ideas and turn them into words, sentences, paragraphs and pages. What was once nothing has been transformed into something by my hands. There is nothing more of an ultimate satisfaction.

CASEYWELSCH@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM