I love my job

After a year of cabbing, I'm as enthusiastic as ever. I'm still learning little things about my job, still having fun, still inspired each time I see the cab at the start of a shift.

Sure, it's a lot of the same stuff every day, and maybe you'd think I'd grow tired of picking up public servants every afternoon and delivering them to the airport, or wheeling home drunks at two in the morning.

But no. Every shift is different, every passenger is a new surprise, every trip is its own little challenge.

I live for smiles, and each shift gives me the chance to make people happy. Even if it's a routine trip, I can do it in a safe, efficient, pleasant manner, but if I get the chance to give the passenger more than they expected, and to demonstrate that I have their interests at heart, it's a bonus when they smile, bid me a cheery farewell and head off into the night. It takes a while for my own smile to fade.

Sure, there are idiots and drunks, stupid and insensitive. But most people are very good, and I've had very few problems. Usually the biggest challenge facing me of a night is working out the shortest route between two places.

If there is a downside to the job, it's the long hours, the need for sleep, and the lack of time to do anything much else in my life. Then again, I can always take a week or a month off if I feel like it.

The money's good, the work is pleasant, the living is easy. What more could I want? I've had other jobs, good jobs, but I'm happiest as a cabbie.