Yup, I make drinks for a living. I'm what Thomas Friedman calls an "untouchable" in his book, THE WORLD IS FLAT. My bar tending career is unlikely to be outsourced to India or China because my job requires me to be in a specific location (a bar) and using a specific knowledge (mixology) to offer a face-to-face service (intoxication). I'm lumped together with lawyers, dentists, carpenters, maids and garbage collectors - pretty much the same folks one sees at a bar. While I didn't start bar tending because of the job security, it is one of the hidden bonuses I've found in this industry.

The first bonus was cash in my pocket. How many folks out there live paycheck to paycheck and struggle with a budget? Need to buy groceries but don't get paid til Friday? Credit card bills piling up? Once I started living shift to shift and having cash in my pocket at the end of each, these concerns diminished. My paychecks paid the rent and I started living out of my pockets. I cut up my credit cards and started paying for everything with cash.

The second bonus was mobility. I can take my job anywhere I want to go - from New Orleans to California, from Alaska to Montana. And guess what, I'm able to live in the same places that people save up a lot of money to visit. Resort towns, vacation destinations, any place where tourists show up seasonally - that's where I'm able to earn a living behind a bar.

The third bonus is travel. The seasonal aspect of my job makes it easy for me to take time off to explore the world during slower seasons. Seeing as I live in high tourist areas, I tend to travel to less popular places and avoid crowded vacation spots - Ecuador and Nicaragua instead of Cancun or Cabo.

My favorite bonus is artistic freedom. Yup, I make art for myself. No Pope, monarch or corporation has any creative control over what I paint or draw. Which is good because I, myself, have so little creative control over what I paint or draw - it just sort of happens (future Blogs will address my art, I'm sure). I like to think of myself as my own patron, funding might be limited but I'm not forced to sell out.

All these bonuses, plus a couple other, overshadow the lack of benefits provided by my job. I might not be getting rich and I'm sure there are easier ways to make a living but being "untouchable" is priceless. Making more money would trap me into making more money. Instead of buying my freedom, the American dollar would become my master. The freedom I feel doing the things I do, one can't buy that at any price.

"There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money and being rich."
- Marlene Dietrich