Over the past two or three weeks, I
went from looking for a job to all of a sudden having three. Three jobs isn’t
quite as unbelievable as it sounds. I tutor at a program for underprivileged
kids for two hours after school most days and then I have an hour before I have
to be at my McDonald’s job until 11pm, although I don’t work at McDonald’s
every day. Friday through Sunday I usually have six hours per day of
McDonald’s, and every so often I work for a few hours as a skate guard at our
local rink. So my hours aren’t bad, but the past couple weeks have been
interesting.
It’s been weird to adjust to
working so much after having so much free time just a few weeks ago. Now there
are days where by the time I get home, I only have six hours until I have to be
up to get ready for school. In those six hours I have to eat, do homework,
shower, take a bit of much-needed time to unwind after work, and only after I’m
done with all that can I sleep. This schedule is perfectly manageable for me,
but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s been piling a bunch of stress onto the
stress I already have from schoolwork and my personal life. I already need a
lot of time that I can dedicate to myself in order to stay sane, and I haven’t yet
figured out where to fit “me time” into my newly busy schedule. The effects are
already starting to show as my stress levels rise and my mental health plummets,
but I hope that once I’ve had time to get accustomed to this new busyness these
effects will shrink as I find ways to fit in me time here and there.
A lot of people ask me why I’d seek
out a job, let alone three, when the workload from a school like Uni already
takes up so much of its students’ lives. Besides pocket money, I direly need to
start saving up. I need a car so that I can actually get to my jobs, and I need
to save for all things college. Money that I make and put away will go to college
visits, college application fees, books, and tuition itself, all things that I
will have to pay for on my own because my mom doesn’t make much. In addition, I
thrive on independence and once I find a way to get a car and paychecks start
coming in, I will be able to be countlessly more independent than I am now
because I’ll be able to buy most of my own food and clothes and the like.
For the reasons that I just
mentioned, I do think that soon taking on this workload will be very beneficial
to me. It may be a rough patch right now, but I hope to get through it quickly
and begin reaping the benefits shortly. It will definitely be interesting to
see how it all works out.
