The general belief is that you always need to put others’ and everyone else’s needs before your own, and this is true to a point. Doing volunteer work and helping people out is rewarding on a personal level and is a good thing to do. However, putting other people before yourself all the time can get to be detrimental to yourself and you need to realize this before you get pushed to the absolute breaking point. It took me a long time, but I finally realized when I need to myself first.

I work at an amusement park, Knoebels Amusement Resort to be specific, and I absolutely love working there. Seeing people’s smiling faces all the time all summer long makes me happy to go to work. Well, at least it used to. Going to work and seeing my friends/co-workers everyday and seeing customers having the best time ever always made me so happy, getting to start working again for the summer was always something I looked forward to. Until I got pushed to my breaking point that is.

I won’t call out names since that would not be fair to anyone, my decision to change positions at Knoebels was a mix of many reasons. I worked more hours than I was probably ready for. My logic for that was simply that my boss needed me, that since I was an older employee I was expected to work as much as humanly possible. I had no issue with that in the beginning… but I slowly started to lose it. It became too much. To make it worse, each day it seemed more and more like I was being taken advantage of because I never complained and that my abilities weren’t being used to the full extent.

I was no longer happy. It got to the point where each night after work I would sit and complain to my parents for what seemed like hours. The positive highlights of each day were few and far between. That’s when I knew that I needed to change.

Transferring departments seems like such a simple task, especially if I’m unhappy, right? Wrong. I maintained this internalized notion that I needed to put others before me. That my boss was losing workers and needed me. I wasn’t thinking for me; I wasn’t putting myself first.

I now am going to be working for a new department at Knoebels, one where I know I will be much happier. Where I know I will not be taken advantage of. I’m going to dearly miss working with all the friends I made over the years in my old department, because they were a strong factor in my logic of staying. I knew that my well being and state of mind was much more important than just seeing friends, who I will still get to see in my new position.

My story is one that I hope can transcend to other people who are like me and just want to put others first. I’ve always been someone who is ready and willing to help someone do something. If I’m asked, I never usually say no and I just go with it… even if I don’t like what I’ve been asked to do. That’s a good trait to have, I guess, but you need to realize when to put yourself first before it’s too late. To be the best person you can be for others, you need to be the best you can be for yourself first.