Oddly enough as I've been driving to and from work I've been longing to be back out in the fields doing some of the farm work I've done in the past. From the driver's seat of my car I see so many of my neighbors (I live in a farming community) out in the fields harvesting, plowing, ripping, applying fertilizer, or whatever needs to be done in a particular field. I used to dread doing farm work, but now that I'm no longer forced to do it, I feel a little bit of longing in the back of my heart for the job of my father.
I'm not going to complain too much about my job. It provides me with a steady paycheck, good benefits, nice co-workers, and a job I can handle. Still, though, I sometimes wish it were possible to just take a month or so off and go work as a farmer again.
Now I never really had the chance to do many of the interesting jobs during harvest, and I don't know if I'd really enjoy them a ton more than the tasks I did have, but I miss them. Before I'd be bored out of my mind spending 8 hours chopping stalks or plowing a field, but now there are times during the day that I would kill to have that amount of time to just sit and think.
There's also a special feeling I get while working in the fields. Instead of working with a cold, impersonal computer, I get the chance to be surrounded by plants, animals, and life. The connection you get with nature by being in the middle of it, even if it is only a gigantic field of corn, is something that cannot be matched inside of an office.
Maybe someday I can retire and live the farming life again. I've always thought about it and it's always seemed like an interesting path to take. I have a while before I reach that point in my life, so there's no real reason to attempt to figure out my retirement plans now, but it still seems like it might be fun.
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