What do you do?

It was 1994, and the question was directed at me and my fellow students in the RLS325 class. It seemed a pretty basic question, and the responses came quickly. “I’m a student.” “I’m a grocery store clerk.” “I’m a nanny.” “I’m a volunteer at the youth center.”

The professor restated the question. “What do you do?”

Collectively, we were like deer in the headlights. Then, Professor Timothy Burton, Dean of the RLS Program at the University of Alberta, expanded. “I cycle. I read. I love to go fishing. I hike in the mountains in the summer. I star gaze. I read to my grand kids.”

It was an a-ha moment! Here sat approximately 35 students in our program major, and not one of us was astute enough to understand the very important question. So often we define ourselves by our work rather than by our leisure. It is through engaging people about their hobbies that we learn what makes them happy.

To answer this question for myself, I shall enlighten you about what I do. In addition to my life in dogs and in this publication, I love to do small renovation projects around the house. Recently, I discovered chalk paint, and what a world it has opened up! I cannot believe it took me until 2018 to find this little gem. Those old dark brown bar stools? Now they resemble driftwood, and look ah-mazeing if I do say so myself, and my rather dated headboard now sports beautiful shade of gray with a coastal wash.

Given that I reside in a Southwest Florida zip code, I also like to pretend I have a green thumb. Pinterest has helped inch me along with growing herbs in the heat and humidity, but one of my favorite discoveries has been food that magically regrows itself. This is as simple as planting clippings or pieces of vegetables and continuing to harvest the rewards. For example, did you know that you can grow green onions or romaine lettuce by just putting the bottoms in water until they sprout, and then planting them in the dirt? How about putting mushroom stems in a mixture of peat and dirt? Or a pineapple top? You can also do this with garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and so much more! Plus, if you start with organic produce, you can have your own little organic garden before you know it.

By now you must be wondering,”What on earth is RLS?” Upon the outset of my second year at uni, I promptly scoured the catalog to identify the most direct path to graduation. This meant that sciences were out because every science class carried a lab in addition to classroom time (read: twice the hours for the same credit). I also needed for all of my French and Spanish linguistic credits to be transferred to a new major. Alas… welcome to RLS: Recreation and Leisure Studies, the program where you pay tens of thousands of dollars for an education in having a good time. It was obviously much more than that, but it’s my tongue in cheek retort to the question of, “What kind of degree do you have?”

My challenge for you is to use the age old question, “What do you do?” to learn something about your fellow dog show people. It could be your breeder, your puppy owners, your handler, or the person set up next to you at the show. The most engaging thing we can do in conversation is ask someone about themselves. Asking a person about his or her hobbies and life outside the workplace has been proven to engage conversation. It is because these questions allow people to talk about what they love to do. Most of the time, this conversation brings positive energy, and who among us can’t use a little more positive juju?