"An idle hand is a devil's workshop."
The above statement was very popular around me when growing up. Whenever I was showing some acts of laziness, my mother would make that statement to put me on my toes. It did help and it's still helping me.
When it comes to working for money to settle my bills, I can do any legal work that my strength can afford. I have tried my hands on many works in the last two decades. I took up farming under the tutelage of my father. During my University days, I was a mason at a point in time. I once was a conductor for a commercial bus. The list continues.
In my experience over the years, the job that I find difficult to cope with is any job in which I have the possibility of relating with people in distress.
I can't cope seeing someone in pain and in the worst case scenario, a dead person. I have tried to correct it but I couldn't. I accepted reality and I am living with it.
A bus in which I was traveling once stopped at an accident scene as the first vehicle to get there immediately after the accident and all the passengers trooped out to rescue the victims in distress. I followed them to the scene but the sight of people wailing in pain nearly broke me down. I didn't even have the strength to join the rescue operation. My body was shaking as if I was shirtless at the peak of harmattan. I returned to the bus shivering. All I could do was to help with prayers.
Sighting a dead body is worse. After a one year pre-degree programme in the University, I had the option of picking Medicine and Surgery to study. My phobia for people in critical health situations made me reject the option and pick another programme. What totally changed my mind from it was when a medical student explained to me that I would be taught in medical school with cadaver to understand human anatomy. That was how I turned without looking back.
Since I was born, I don't think I have intentionally looked at a dead body. If I walked up to it unexpectedly, I would turn my face immediately. The phobia is inexplicable.
I was the main person taking care of my father when he was critically ill. I carried him when required. On a particular night that he gave up the ghost, I was informed immediately and I was asked to come and see the remains. I love my dad, no doubt, but I couldn't summon the courage to look at the remains before he was buried the following day.
It is that serious.
Now, answering the question of the job that I would never do no matter how attractive the pay is, my answer is mortuary attendant, undertaker or any other job that has direct contact with the dead. If I am left with an option of doing the job or starving to death, I would choose the latter.
In fact, I can't cope being a Medical Doctor for the reasons explained earlier and for the possibility of having direct or indirect contact with a dead body.
Any job that has to do with dealing with people in pain or handling the remains of a person, I am out of it wholeheartedly.
