"Have To" Versus "Get To"

I was having a conversation with someone the other day, and when I told her that I modeled for art classes as a part time job, she seemed somewhat interested in doing it herself.  It seems like everyone is searching for a way to make ends meet in the current economy.  Once she expressed some interest, she asked me, "Do you have to pose nude?"  My answer at the time was, "Yes, usually."  That seemed to kill her interest...

But when I thought about it later (while doing a two hour pose at Oil and Cotton), I realized that I have never thought of modeling nude as a "have to."  It has always been a "get to" for me.  I get to model nude.  In the art studio, the teacher and artists all have to wear clothes because of the law, the rules of the college, university, or art center, and/or the expectations of society.  But I, as the model, get an exemption from that.  I'm expected to be nude.  I get to be nude.  I consider it the most wonderful of freedoms.  Free from clothing, from covering, from disguises.  Is that what makes the difference between those of us who continue to model over many years versus those who model for only a year or two and then move on?  And are artists/art students able to tell the difference between the "have to's" and the "get to's"?  I've heard it said that artists really prefer a model who appears comfortable over one who seems uncomfortable.  Is that why there seem to be so few of us who are suited for art modeling as a long-term job?

Over the years, I have had a great many people tell me that they would like to try modeling for art classes.  Of those, I know of only two who went ahead and actually modeled for at least one session (and one of those had grown up in a nudist family).  In the current climate of gymnophobia that seems to have the United States in its grip, those of us who are truly comfortable in our natural, God-created state, seem rare.

Nothing profound here; just some random thoughts that passed through my mind during that two-hour pose I just completed...