Another Point of View

Story ideas seem to come out of nowhere.  During a typical day I was struck by the lightning bolt of a unique thought.  A story from an unusual point of view that I hadn't explored before.  It was a fun experience writing about the life of this individual.

I enjoy my life. Granted, I work hard every day, but so do the majority of those around me. Some of them are diggers that spend the majority of their daily lives with their faces down in the dirt. They dig out passages for traveling and clear out the chambers we use for storage and living quarters. Others spend all day and night caring for the young. Feeding them, cleaning them, making sure they are in a safe area, and carrying them from one place to another if absolutely necessary. The worst job around is sanitation. Those poor folks wander the hallways looking for the wastes other have just left lying around. They have to pick it up and carry it to the dump, an area that the rest of us avoid as much as possible.

I consider myself lucky to have one of the better jobs. I'm one of the ones responsible for our food. I get outside to sample the fresh air and light of the sun. When I look up, I see all the natural beauty this world has to offer. I am also one of the fortunate ones that gets to get the first taste when a new type of food is found. While I still have to share the food, I like to think my opinion of the taste shapes how many others will eat it and what they will think of it. If I don't like something, I let others know and almost none of them will get food there again. It is a heavy responsibility to have sometimes. It is also my privilege to carry particularly wonderful foods to the big boss and share it with her. That is the part of my job I enjoy the most. Getting to interact directly with the woman responsible for all of us being here.

Like I said, the majority of those around me work as hard as I do. It's the ones that don't work as hard that really upset me. It's the folks responsible for our security that do very little on any given day. They do hardly anything. They just stand around watching us work or strut up and down the Just because they are bigger, this is supposed to garner them more respect. They spend most of their time getting in the way of the rest of us working. We have to move around them and their larger size makes it that much more difficult.

The only time they actually do anything is when someone invades our territory. Then they mobilize and attack the invaders. Of course, they go back to doing nothing once the invaders are taken care of. Of course then my coworkers and I have extra work to do. We have to handle any corpses that may be laying around as well as our regular duties. The least the big guys could do is clean up their own messes. I realize they are important because they protect all of us. However, they could also help out with some of the rest of the work when they are not doing anything else.

All things considered, my life is good. I have a job I like and work with many others like me. I get to interact with our majestic leader. I get to experience wonderful sights, sounds, smells, and tastes all the time. Despite the routine nature of my job, no two days are exactly the same. Even though there are thousands just like me, I enjoy who I am.  Who ever would have thought being an ant could be so wonderful?