My 16th birthday started my working days. I knew it was the beginning of an era of countless days doing work that (I thought) would barely count for anything but giving me gas money to hang out with friends. Those first few days slaving over fast food taught me two things:
1. I never wanted to work in food again
2. I will never eat chicken again.
Every day I went to work gave me more motivation to finish high school, get into a good college, and never handle chicken again. Thankfully, I haven’t had to… yet.
When I finished high school, I was working two jobs and doing anything I could to save an extra penny. We all know college is expensive and I didn’t want to have to work while I was there. I only wanted to work if I honestly needed the money. Because I come from a single-parent home, my mom wasn’t able to support me 100%, which lead me getting a job to keep living my ~lavish~ lifestyle of Buffalo Wild Wings on Thursday with friends and getting my nails done every other week.
In my two years at Michigan State, I’ve worked with two different areas at the university, two retail positions with larger corporations, as well as spending my last summer in New York at a sports academy and this coming summer in London at a design firm. I may not be flipping chicken anymore, but I’m still working almost every day while going to school.
Aside from the obvious great things like money to do my nails and eat all the fast food I want, working while going to school (both in high school and now) gives me amazing time management skills. I can balance two jobs, clubs on campus, writing for the Odyssey, going to school full time, and still keep up with my family. A lot of people are shocked when they see my schedule and think I must be worn out, but it keeps me busy and it keeps me happy.
All my time spent working while in school also ensures that I know the worth of a dollar. I have to balance my money and know one week I might be down to only one Taco Bell trip so I can pay my rent or make a tuition payment. Creating a budget is something you see on all those memes about “things I didn’t learn in high school” and although it would have been nice if it were taught this valuable lesson, I think it was easier to learn from trial and error.
It’s not just for the money either. You can learn about yourself; I now know that I am not made to work with food or make phone calls regularly. You learn about other people, too, on how to work in teams and resolve conflict with people you don’t get along with. It’s all real world experience that you can’t learn in a classroom, and the best part is you’re getting paid for it. You also get to meet so many great people. I’ve met some of my best friends from working and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
Working has given me the opportunity to grow as a person more than school could ever do. I like to believe that because I continue to work, I am a better person because of it.
