Right before summer begins, I tell myself that I will take at least one day of every week to go out with friends and have a good summer. When it becomes time for my summer job to start, I never do what I tell myself. I end up working around 50 to 65 hours every week, and almost always working every single day. And when I do have a day off, I'm either sleeping, doing homework, or don't want to talk to anyone.
But why does any of this even matter? Why am I writing this article about how much I work? I'm writing this because I quit my job last week, and that was one of the best decisions I made all year. When you're a workaholic, like me, you don't do anything but go to work and sleep. And since the day I quit I was finally able to do a lot of the things that I missed out on, and now won't have to miss out on things.
Family time
Since I don't live with my family during the summer to help not have such a long commute to work, I miss seeing them. And even when I did live at my house, I was always gone so I never got to see my family. I missed out on my little siblings swimming races, and family dinners. Letting them sleep in, taking them late to daycare, or even picking them up early for us to go get ice cream. I wasn't able to have adult conversations with my mom. I never saw my grandparents or aunt and cousins. I miss out on a lot of memories they made over past five summers. The day I quit, I went home and watched my little brother and sister swim at their last swim meet before sectionals. It was nice to see them do so well and have conversations with them about their summer.
Friendships
Even though my job gave me some of the best friendships I could possibly ask for, I also lost a lot of friends. Working over an hour away and never making time for them really played an effect on our friendship. I wasn't able to keep my close friends from high school because I was always in Missouri working. I regret losing touch with those few people. For my friendships now, I barely see them. Most of our conversations are over the phone or a FaceTime chat. I miss spending time with my friends, ordering Chinese food and watching movies at the apartment. Since I quit, I am able to go spend time with some of closes friends that I haven't seen all summer, eat pizza in bed, go to local pool. Do whatever we want to do because I no longer work.
Time to live and learn
From age 15 to now 20, I spent every summer at the same place working all the time. I never got much time to just be a teenager or young adult during the summer. I rarely went to the river or lake with my friends, and I haven't had a vacation since I started. Now I'm in Georgia for about a week or so, just relaxing and doing whatever I want to do. I didn't get much time to go out an party with friends and sleep in the next day. Since I was always working, I missed out on a lot of living and learning experiences most young adults have. When I go back home I plan on going to do things that I wasn't able to before.
Looking back at all my summers, I regret not taking more days off. Not calling in to work so I could go to the river with my friends. Not being able to spend important quality time with my family. Sometimes, it takes quitting the job you love to see all the things you missed out on. Something I learned and want to show others is don't work extra hours if you are going to miss out on something more important than money.
Money does make the world go around, but it can't replace memories that were never made.
