I don’t recall what caused this thought to occur to me - that I should write about the handful of jobs that I’ve considered interesting over the years - but it seemed like an interesting topic nonetheless. It’s not that each of these jobs is something I would necessarily love to do today, but that I’ve considered them so at one point or another.
One of my favorite fantasy jobs is that of the bicycle messenger. I’ve always found a lot of glamour in the idea of running parcels from place to place in the city by bike.
Consider, you’d have to be in great shape to be a courier. Being in constant motion all day, delivering packages, running up stairs and down corridors, it’s likely to keep you very fit. That’s an attractive quality in a job, I think.
Getting to meet new people every day would be fun, too. It’s kind of like the relationship you have with the UPS guy. You don’t know him very well, but you see him often enough to make casual conversation.
“Travel for work” has an entirely different meaning for a bike messenger. You’d travel across town. In a bigger city, you would get to see a lot of the landscape, I’d bet. You would never have to take lunch at the same place twice if you were a courier in a big city, and there would always be something fresh going on.
I’ll admit that I also have a strange addiction to messenger bags. I’ve been on the search for the perfect bag for a long time, and I’ve still not found it. But I love the idea of the messenger bag. Did you know that some of the best messenger bags used by actual couriers are made out of the vinyl they use for billboards? It makes real messenger bags durable, colorful, and one-of-a-kind.
Kevin Bacon portrayed a bike messenger. So did Jessica Alba.
I think that there is still a place in the world for bicycle messengers, even with the modern pace of door-to-door FedEx. There’s something nostalgic and precious about entrusting a specific person to get your items delivered promptly.
Of course, my dreams of being a bike messenger are dashed very easily. I don’t live in a city, so there are no clients, and starting that much bike travel all at once would probably kill me. Still, imagining gliding through traffic on my bike with someone’s important delivery makes me smile.
