So maybe it’s a bit odd being the only woman working at a construction site, but it’s money, right?  And there’s lots of reasons why it’s way better than your job.

1) Power tools.  Ladies, you may not all understand this, but the inherent awesomeness of a job increases exponentially with the number of power tools involved.  In construction, there’s power tools in every task, and the high number required makes this job exponentially awesome.  In fact, I don’t really even need another reason, but in case there’s people who also work with power tools reading this:   

2) Magic.  Things move by themselves.  Half the time when I pick up something heavy, it becomes weightless and a voice asks “where do you want it?”  How cool is that?

3)  It’s active.  So I wake up too late to go for a run?  Who cares?  I get an eight hour workout every day!

4)  It’s outside.  Besides the freedom and fresh air this brings, I get to work on my tan.

5)  My co-workers are awesome.  My boss is the dad of a family I grew up with – the boys (now men) are for all practical intents and purposes, my brothers.  Who gets paid to hang out with three of their best friends?  Me!  And we have fun, let me tell you – between insulting each other horribly and solving the healthcare issue, it is never dull.

6)  My boss.  He takes the time to teach why you’re doing something as well as how to do it.  He gives clear instructions, he has time for questions, he rolls with it when you make mistakes.  One of the hardest things about other jobs for me is that it’s hard for another boss to be as good as him.

7) Being friend as well as employee.  This solves a lot of problems – my dad forgot to pick me up?  That’s okay, Shards, just eat dinner with us!  Ripped the seat out of my work jeans?  I just had to borrow from one of my “brothers”.  Having trouble figuring out among my family how to get us to four different places with only two cars?  Fine!  The boss lets me borrow his car. 

8)  Learning how things work.  I’ve always been fascinated by the way things go together and operate.  Being part of building a house lets me see how all the pieces fit.  I learn about the engineering of how load is distributed through certain ceiling structures and that the way finished boards fit so nice together is because they’re cut specially to lap over one another.  It makes the job intriguing.

9)  Practical skills.  From wiring a house to shimming a door frame straight, I’ve learned things that will come in handy in the future.  For instance, when my family had a circuit in our house that wasn’t working, I guessed the route the circuit took and sure enough, it was right – fixing things is a lot faster when you have a good idea of how they’re laid out. 

10) It’s cooler because it’s mine!  All MINE!  (My precious? No.)  Actually, I just needed a reason number 10, and playing with mud (drywall mud!) didn’t seem significant enough to make a reason all by itself.)