I consider myself a very sociable guy, by most standards. This can be at odds with my general tendency to stay home unless I’m really, really feeling like meeting up with people and having a good time. I spend a lot of time with my friends, but sometimes I will go out to parties and meet with new people, all the better to expand my social circle and try to find different people with whom to engage in a range of activities that, say, one friend might not be interested in.

One pet peeve of mine, as I’m sure is one that many might share, is the general tendency for the newly acquainted to ask each other about their livelihoods. A typical conversation follows:

“Hi! I’m Jay.”

“Hi. I’m Justin” (Or whatever name it may be, since by the way this conversation will degrade it really doesn’t matter.)

“So, how do you know (insert name of host of party here)?”

“Oh, we went to school together.”

“That’s nice, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too. So…” (And here it comes in three, two, one…) “What do you do?”

At this point I’m just tempted to go into a list of all the fun things I like to do on my free time: photography, driving up to sights heretofore unseen, drawing, listening to good music, movies, long walks on the beach. But we all got-damn know that that is not quite what “Justin,” or whoever it may be, means when they ask “what do you do?”

Take note, I am in no way ashamed of what I do for a living. Working in a cadaver lab, however, raises the curiosity factor by this much and frankly, I spend forty hours a week, and then some, at work and the last thing I want to do in my free time is to talk about work. It’s work, dammit. Why is it anyone’s business what I do, anyway? Many, many times, I lie. My typical answer is “I work for the government.” That usually shuts the occupation portion of the conversation down almost instantly. I used to feel bad about it, but I figure it’s easier for whomever it is I’m talking to to find something else to talk about.

I never really got the rationale for being so curious about someone’s line of work. Is it a means by which someone can feel better than the other? Culturally, and this I can observe being an immigrant and all, I find that a lot of Americans take pride in their work. To be honest, good work will always bring about a good sense of pride and self. But for Fred’s sake! What we do for a living is only a small part of who we are. Can’t we find something else to talk about?