The Correlation Between Physical Work & Academic Success?

It may come as a surprise to some of you that the author and maintainer of this technologically-oriented website/blog works on a Dairy farm as his day job – or, rather, his weekend job – to support his college experience, which takes up the rest of the week… but it is true. And while I hate to admit it, I have come to appreciate it more these days when the school-year seems rather long and the months are starting to slow.

I am pretty much the jack-of-all trades when I am at the farm; my range of “services” includes feeding, running equipment, maintaining equipment, cleaning equipment, manure management, calf feeding… basically anything except milking the actual cows, of course! These names sound distinctive, but in reality, they tend to be very dirty, mundane tasks that I certainly do not look forward to at the end of the week. I really can’t say I know anyone who actually desires to come home smelling and looking bedraggled, as if he had been dragged through the… er, mud.

Yet for all this, as much as I often wish I worked someplace elegant, someplace related to my desired career, I find myself strangely attracted to the Dairy farm by necessity in more than just the normal sense. As much as I run from it, am constantly on the lookout for a computer-related job, internships, etc., I have come to realize that perhaps – just maybe – my success in school is linked to the hard work that I do outside of it.

So why is this so? I believe any college student would admit that despite the fun and partying that college is sometimes associated with, at the end of the week, it’s all about hard work and study. By the end of the week, my eyes are tired from the glow of my LCD panel as I spend most of the week in front of it, drafting yet another paper; by Friday, the glare of textbooks, notebooks, and white-boards are burned into my mind. My brain is filled to the max, and finally the weekend comes. I truly have a love-hate relationship with weekends: I know the work is coming, but at least my brain will have a rest!

I can’t say I really do enjoy the weekends. But after a particularly lengthy day at work, I come home exhausted physically… and much more ready to buckle down to another week of study. I leave my frustration behind when I visit the time clock at the end of the day. I have had all day to sort out the week’s events that happen in a whirlwind. You see, as much as I don’t like the dirty physical work, my attention span and mental capacity just doesn’t seem to work without it. And now that I am pursuing a career that would likely not require physical labor, I find myself wondering if I would be as happy and successful as I think I would. As much as I hate to admit it, I am realizing that I owe my humble day job for more than just the funds in my bank account: to the Dairy I owe my undivided attention in math class at 8:30AM on Monday mornings, and in the unending hours of Political Science, perhaps my sanity as well.

How about you? Do you hate physical labor as I do, but find it one of the best outlets for a cluttered mind?