This past weekend as Americans celebrated Labor Day, it got me thinking about my own career.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of giving the grand tour to a couple of area Cub Scouts in an effort to advance their ranking. Unfortunately, there’s not much to see in our shack. We have desks, computers and a few uncomfortable desk chairs.

In fact, I didn’t show the scouts the most interesting room of our building — our bathroom. We actually have some interesting science experiments growing there, which I hope to publish a full report on by year’s end.

The scouts looked as interested as possible in what I was telling them. At one point, I began thinking to myself, “If I were in their shoes, I’d probably be pretty bored. All this talk about interviews, page layout and answering phones is exciting stuff. Hey ma, can we go to McDonald’s after this?”

The fact of the matter is, they may not have been bored at all. They may have gotten some sort of redeemable information out of my rambling.

However, if I was still a Cub Scout, (yes, I once was a Cub Scout) I’d want to go hang out with police officers, firefighters and dog catchers. That’s where the real excitement is.

Of course, I’ve had dozens of police officers and firefighters tell me that what they do can be boring, too. There’s those dreaded reports to fill out and you spend a lot of time driving around or waiting in a firehouse for something to actually happen. But when it does, the adrenaline starts pumping and the excitement of their chosen professions reveals itself. If I were a police officer or firefighter and I was giving a tour of what I do to some very bored Cub Scouts, I’d just ask them, “who wants to see my gun” or “who wants me to turn on the siren.”

In the world of journalism, we have less to be excited about. To us, the equivalent of a high-speed chase or towering inferno would be an election night. That’s some excitement right there, let me tell you. If you’ve never been in a room with about five or six reporters, blitzed on caffeine and nicotine watching election results, it’s not to be missed. It’s somewhat akin to watching a bunch of gambling addicts who’ve bet their entire life savings on the long shot at the Kentucky Derby.

Aside from that, what we do can be quite mundane. Even sadder, is that it sometimes gets so mundane, we occasionally wish for crimes, fires, earthquakes, locusts, plague and other natural disasters just so we’ll have something exciting to write about. That’s the way I used to feel, anyway.

Now, I’ve settled into my role of working for a twice-a-week community newspaper, and I’ve actually found the pace to be refreshing. I don’t need violent crime and locusts to make a story interesting. There are a lot of good people in our area with a lot of interesting stories to tell.

And while writing stories about city business or organizations may not thrill the badges off a Cub Scout, it’s good enough for me. I’m proud to say I enjoy what I do and that’s what matters most.