Today was another rough day at work. A rough day at the end of a rough week in the middle of a rough month in the middle of a challenging year. I don’t mean to be such a drama queen about work. I’ve really become pretty good at letting the bad things roll off my neck, but the collective effort of doing it week after week has become a burden to bear.

A good friend of mine either heard from a mutual friend that I’ve been struggling or caught up on my life here at The MG or maybe just sensed my struggles, and on cue sent me an e-mail today that said, ‘I hope you know that your job doesn’t define your life. … Sometimes I lose track of that.’

He’s right, and though I do a pretty good job remember that, I lose track sometimes too. Or I just need to constantly remind myself of it to stay grounded.

In that spirit, I want to publicly remind myself what defines my life:

• My amazing family whom I love and who support me. They don’t care what my job is, only that I’m happy and taking care of myself.
• My equally amazing fiance, who is there to support me after every rough day and who has had to do a little more lately to take care of me but has done so without complaint.
• My also equally amazing friends, both in real life and in the blogoworld. You all listen to me whether the news is happy, sad or really not that interesting. Being allowed to vent helps.
• My adorable puppydogs who will smother me in kisses and bad breath at any time of the day or night.
• My faith. I don’t talk about it much here, but there are times that I would be completely lost without it.
• My goals of one day getting back to doing something I can enjoy. I’m working on them little by little, and it feels good to be excited about them.

And to an extent work is a part of the definition of my life, but I think what my friend meant was that work — and especially my struggles at work — do not solely define my life. I do good work most of the time. I mostly enjoy the people I work with. I usually enjoy the work that I do. An occasional mistake, an occasional difficult co-worker and occasionally disliking the work I do does not make up the sum of my life, even if it feels that way sometimes.

So here’s to the things that do define my life, including you Modern Friends. I can honestly say, just thinking about it makes me feel better already.