Blessed are the cheesemakers – and everyone else who just loves their job

‘This is it, this is what I want to do’: Nardia Baxter, who has made cheese her life’s work, at the Goldfields Farmhouse factory in Ballarat. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

For some, it is hard to believe that the drudgery of going to work every day can instead bring joy. But others are lucky enough to have found the sweet spot where their job is also their passion.

Here, four job-lovers share what gets them out of bed in the morning to go to work.

Janelle Collins – librarian

I was in the library every day as a kid because I was a big nerd. I was just avoiding the playground really. But not once did a teacher librarian ever say to me, “You could consider this as your career”, which blows my mind now.

I always wanted to be a librarian. I grew up on the Central Coast [of New South Wales] and back in 1985 the only place to do the course was at the UTS campus in Lindfield [in northern Sydney]. It was just too far and I didn’t know how to get there. I ended up in various other jobs – an optometrist practice manager and a bookseller – but when I was in my late 20s, I had a chance meeting with somebody.

Janelle Collins at the State Library of NSW. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

She was a library technician and was starting a class. One night a week for two years I juggled that and then the local council did a big hiring in their libraries. I floated around all the library branches and, even though it was extremely inconvenient with young children in preschool, I just sucked it up.

Every five years I need to look for the next challenge. There were a few jobs going at the State Library and I realised for the last 30 years – my eldest is 30 now – I’ve chosen jobs based on how they suit the rest of the family. I thought, “This is my turn, it involves two hours commuting each way, but I’m doing it”.

Collins says her current job ‘is career defining’. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

It is career defining, this role. I have a background in genealogy and I’m one of the family history team.

I’ve loved it from day one. I get annoyed when people say, “You’re a librarian, you must read all day”. No! It takes an inquiring mind, and you don’t need to know everything, but you need to know how to find the answer to everything.

Kae Sheen Wong – medical specialist

I’m an obstetrician. I qualified about 10 years ago but in 2017 I had a close relative go through serious illness in Malaysia. Even though I’d been working in medicine for a little while, I didn’t have much knowledge about palliative care. The more I read about it, the more I was intrigued by it and as a result I re-specialised and I am halfway through my training now.

Kae Sheen Wong, centre, with the parents of Mia, Emily and Charlotte, after she helped deliver the spontaneous triplets (a one in 6,400 incidence). Photograph: Supplied

A lot of what I love about palliative care is what I love about obstetrics. Nobody can avoid birth. Nobody can avoid death. But how it happens makes such a lasting impact. If a baby is born safely and the mother and baby come through well, then this impacts them for the rest of their lives. But similarly, if somebody dies well, it impacts their family for ever.

When you treat a patient in obstetrics, like in palliative care, you don’t just treat them, you treat the whole family – it is the patient and her baby and the family … There are still people who experience bad outcomes in obstetrics and unfortunately not everybody dies without angst. One of the biggest challenges is to recognise our limited capacity but, by the same token, I don’t find it distressing because this is our place in the world.

I very strongly believe that anybody can do valuable things in any job but medicine is quite special in that it gives you a really high yield for what you do.

No day is ever the same. I have never come close to being burnt out, because every new patient is a new story and it’s just such a privilege to be able to be part of those stories.

Nardia Baxter – cheesemaker

I used to be a research scientist, with a PhD in microbiology, but I had a nagging thought for years that it wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing.

Cheesemaker Nardia Baxter puts single cream brie in brine at her Goldfields Farmhouse factory in Ballarat. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

I always felt drawn to the agricultural industry and food but I didn’t have the financial resources or skills to become a farmer and I did not want to retrain as a chef at 32. Then I went to a one-day cheesemaking class in Melbourne. I came home and said to my husband: “This is it, this is what I want to do.”

From the initial class it took three years, much procrastinating by me and two babies before we got it going but we have been registered cheesemakers since 2005.

I just love making cheese. The science and magic that occurs during the processes fascinates me – the beauty of the milk, the satisfaction of the knife cutting through the curd for the first time, turning cheeses out of their baskets.

Blue vein cheese at Goldfields Farmhouse factory. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

In the morning, my husband collects the milk from the farm and brings it back to our creamery. Once the milk is in the vat and pasteurising, we will have orders that need to be prepared, farmers’ markets to prepare for and cheese that needs brining, salting, turning, brushing, wrapping or taking out of the maturing room.

Watching the mould develop on the surface to the cheeses (as long as it is the one I want!), the first time a wheel of blue is cut open to reveal a network of veins, or cutting open a hard cheese and seeing the thin line of the rind running along the edge – I love that I produce food of enjoyment for people. Cheese is a joy purchase, not a staple.

Rebecca Clarke – drum tutor

I’ve been drumming now for about 35 years and I’ve been a private drum tutor since 1999. I’ve got about 35 students (the most I ever had was around 60) and I’ve been able to perfectly balance my life now – I work in a school three days of the week and then three afternoons I tutor out of my house.

‘I always say I’ll be a singer or a piccolo player in my next life’ – Rebecca Clarke. Photograph: David Starr

Piano was my first instrument and drumming sort of came accidentally when my brother started playing clarinet in the school band. I wanted to join the band and the teacher said, “You can play glockenspiel”. If there wasn’t glockenspiel, she’d get me playing some of the other percussion. I remember playing a lot of wood block.

I think because it was still the late 80s and [drums] was kind of a boys’ instrument, it didn’t even occur to me to ask for lessons. But then, once I started, I could just play it naturally.

Performing is extremely stressful. I still play in rock and blues bands once a month, and it is always exciting. The loading in and loading out [of the drums] side of it is not a pleasant part of being a musician. I always say I’ll be a singer or a piccolo player in my next life.

There’s a lot of flexibility because I’m self-employed, which is one of the reasons why I love it. But the thing that I’m teaching – drums – is one of my passions. That’s why I love to work so much, because I’m sharing with young people something that is really important to me.

During Covid, every single student except for one agreed to do drum lessons via Zoom. It was definitely harder but I still did it. A lot of parents went out and bought electronic and acoustic drum sets but for other kids they just tapped on top of the table or we’d get tissue boxes, saucepans or Tupperware containers to make a few different drums, and it worked. Another part of the job that’s enjoyable is helping new students to get drum kits – going drum shopping with other people’s money is a lot of fun.