What do you do for a real job?

My fellow youth ministers and I regularly get asked "What's your real job?"  Or, "It's so nice of you to give up your weekends in college to have the teens hang out at church"

Never mind that the three of us are married, some with kids, and all with degrees related to our field.

Though work as a youth minister is never over, the busy season of my work as Confirmation coordinator at a large parish is over...

5 months of insanity, collecting paperwork, 

talking to parents,

coordinating schedules for 27 high schools and 204 students,

recruiting chaperones,

keeping kids holy,

rationing the donuts for myself the teens,

retuning 3500 emails, planning a retreat for 200 with support staff of 40+, 9 weekly classes, and 2 Confirmation Masses with the bishop....

I joke and kid about these things, but in reality I LOVE LOVE LOVE what I do, and I love the miracles I witness in teens lives.  After months of our hard work to see things like the guy who finally has a heart to heart with his dad, the girl who thinks twice about her clothing choices, the reluctant teen who surrenders all to God...the chaperone who sees that faith isn't just a head thing...

So worth it.  

But all good things come to an (seasonal) end.  I need these few months of down time to pick myself up spiritually, physically and emotionally; and to prayerfully prepare for the next season of Confirmation preparation.


 *yawn* it's time for my long winter's nap.