This is a bit of a long answer to this question.
Lately, I think, when people talk about guilty pleasures, they’re often talking about television shows they’re ashamed to admit they watch. Beverly Hills 90210, Ghost Whisperer, Temptation Island – things like that.

The thing is, I have always watched those shows. And I have admitted it without shame –or, at least, with far less shame than regular people. I am a TV fiend. I know details about shows I’ve never even watched. For example, for Christmas 2006, I got a video iPod and a clear plastic protecting case for it.

“I’ve named my new iPod ‘Travolta,’” I told my best friend.
“Why?” he asked.
“The Boy in the Plastic Bubble!” I said.
“What?” my best friend said.
“John Travolta was in a TV movie called The Boy in the Plastic Bubble,” I said.
“Oh,” said my best friend, “No wonder I didn’t get it – I’ve never seen that movie.”
Pause.
“…Neither have I,” I admitted.

I watch a ridiculous amount of television. I love television. I revel in cheesy reality shows. I love soap operas. I love good television, too, but bad television is wonderful in a completely different way because it is something to make fun of. An easy target, maybe, but it’s always a good time.

I was very much an indoor kid as a child. My parents and sister would often tell me that I shouldn’t watch so much and that I should get outside and get some exercise, so, for a very long time, I felt bad about how much I watched TV. Normal, well-adjusted people don’t watch so much TV, so clearly there was something not quite right about me.

Now, even though my parents disapproved of my TV-watching habits, they were (and still are) very cool parents. They’ve always supported me in whatever I’ve wanted to do with my life and when I was wondering what to take in university, they encouraged me to learn something I liked rather than something I thought would make me a lot of money. My sister was an engineer in university, and she does make a ridiculous amount of money, but she admits that she hates her job.

I went to school for English, since even though I spend a lot of time in front of the TV, I spend an equal amount of time reading. I always enjoyed writing as well, and I thought, “I can get a degree for just reading novels and writing my thoughts about them? Score!” I also began working at my school newspaper, planning on becoming a journalist for the HARD NEWS! I’d be very, very serious and write Pulitzer-winning articles about… serious stuff. I didn’t know what. I planned on getting a master’s degree in journalism and being SUPER SERIOUS about writing.

But the thing is, I’m quite rubbish at writing serious stuff. I can do it, but it’s never my best work – I am at my best when I can just mock something. Even at my school newspapers, my best articles were things like comparing Beverly Hills, 90210 to The O.C. and making fun of both of them. It had just never occurred to me that there was a way to make money off of it, at least not right out of school.

But, lo and behold, luck was very kind to me. Searching for as summer job, I came across a posting for an internship for an entertainment news web site that prides itself on mocking celebrities and writing snarky articles about pop culture. Not only that, but literally everything they were looking for could be applied to me. Degree in English or journalism? Check. Interested in pop culture? Check. Grammar conscious? My friends call me the grammar Nazi. Sarcastic? Riiiiight, like I’m sarcastic.

I applied for the job, making sure to tell them just how perfect I was for the job. “When it comes to pop culture,” I wrote, “I can remember details without even trying. I can never find my keys, but I can remember the name of the evil car from Knight Rider. (That would be the Knight Automated Rover Robot, by the way.)"

My boss later told me that the Knight Rider comment was the entire reason why they brought me to be interviewed.

So I got the internship, and it was the best six weeks I’ve ever spent. Luck continued to favour me, as right near the end of my internship, one of the writers quit to concentrate on his music career. So I was hired for the rest of the summer and had way more fun at work than should be allowed. Last September, I left to start my postgraduate journalism degree, since I thought that having no formal journalism training might hurt me in the long run – and, even though I’d had a blast for the summer, I still had ideas of becoming a hard news writer.

But I soon realized that hard news was not for me. I couldn’t stop being cheeky. In my magazine class, I ended up writing an article about Brazilian waxes and included the line, “As soon as Sarah Jessica Parker got a Brazilian wax on Sex and the City, it was beef curtains for public hair.” I got in a little bit of trouble for that.

At the end of my first semester, I was doing well but I wasn’t enjoying it that much. Being a serious journalist was so stressful on my delicate sensibilities! When I found out that another one of the writers at my old job had left to work for the CBC, I told my old boss I was considering leaving school and would it be possible for me to go back to work for her?

“Hurray, you’re coming back!” was her reply. “I always thought it was a bit stupid that you went back to school. It was like you were going to school to get a job you already had.”

I couldn’t really argue with that point. I dropped out of my program and went back to work.

So now I have a full-time job as the TV editor for the web site. I get to write about television and interview TV people I admire – and even if I hate them, I am allowed to write about what idiots they are. Networks send me DVDs of shows that haven’t begun to air yet, and I’m allowed to watch them at my desk during work hours! I used to have to hide my TV-watching, and now I’m getting paid for it. My previously useless knowledge of obscure pop culture trivia now comes in handy every single day.

I’ll never be rich and I’ll never win a Pulitzer. But I have fun every single day at my job and I’m making enough to live on. I never dread the workweek ahead and I don’t have to worry about making too many puns. I may not be the best writer in the world, but I am having the time of my life.

TV might have started out as a guilty pleasure for me, but today I am proud that I never gave up on what I enjoyed. I’ll probably be a bit screwed if I ever have to get a job doing “normal” writing, but for now, I am very happy with my life.

Apologies for length, but I guarantee I’ve spent more time watching TV today than you just spent reading this.
(Katanma http://www.pshaw.org, Mon 17 Mar 2008, 20:19, closed)

Good for you!
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the proper attitude to have about work- it doesn't matter if you get rich and famous, as long as you truly enjoy what you do. (And, of course, as long as you make enough to pay your bills...)
(The Resident Loon my church practices the handling of trouser snakes, Mon 17 Mar 2008, 20:42, )

Bravo
Sounds like a dream job
(Bernardo O'Higgins at your service on, Tue 18 Mar 2008, 6:06, )

you lucky lucky girl!!
i like my job but could never say that i love it. i am nearly 47 and still really don't know what i want to be when i grow up :)
(chameleon61, Tue 18 Mar 2008, 9:18, )

Bloody good on you
I spent waaaaaay too long doing a succession of jobs just for the money, the result of which nearly turned me into a gibbering wreck who would gladly have stopped the car in a layby and sat there all day until it was time to go home.

Fortunately I managed to escape, and am now doing something I enjoy (and it pays well, which is a bonus, but is not the reason I do what I do).

However, your job sounds much better!
(Davros' Granddad member of the b3ta flappy coat club (est. 2008), Tue 18 Mar 2008, 11:48, )