What do YOU do?

In my spare time I enjoy photography, what do YOU do?

I must admit, I always get a bit baffled by the question 'What do you do?' I always feel like replying 'What do I do WHEN?' Don't you think it's a bit bizarre that many people work around 8 hours a day, sleep for 8 hours a night, thus leaving an extra 8 hours of free time. Yet no one seems interested in what you do for the 8 hours of your free time a day. Or what you 'do' when you can't sleep? Do you get up and make yourself a hot drink? Read a book? Start doing the ironing? Make a list? Sit  there and toss and turn until dawn breaks? What do you do when you suffer rejection or a set back in life?  What do you do to relax and unwind? What hobbies do you have? What do you do when you get stressed? or angry? or upset? These things tell us so much more about the person we're speaking to, than what job to you have. Unless of course you're trying to work out whether or not the other person has enough incomings to keep you in the style to which you'd like to become accustomed, the question 'what do you do' when referring to work, is completely irrelevant.

I'd rather talk about dreams, about plans and ambitions, about memories and experiences, about goals, and targets, than what a person does as a job. Some of the most interesting people you'll meet are likely to have jobs that are dull as ditchwater. Some students paying their way through university have simple low paid, low status jobs, so if you judge them on their job they're not going to score highly, however they are making a better life for themselves, they're reaching out for their dream and drawing it to them, unlike some of the people who are stuck in high paid, high status jobs who are simply getting through each day until it's the weekend or until they're allowed to retire. Some people working in coffee shops are doing other things, maybe trying to make a career for themselves in something more creative, yet working a coffee shop as a regular source of income so they too can pursue their dreams.