It is becoming increasingly difficult to get through high school without working a job on the side with what little free time many high school students have. The pressures of adult life are being faced earlier and earlier by students. Does this have a negative effect on students or is it teaching us the values of hard work and self-reliability? I know whenever I complain about doing a chore or work that seems to me like there wasn’t any benefit, my mother would always say, “I am doing it to build character.”
But is building character worth those hours that are spent away from doing the things we can enjoy? High school is one of the greatest times of anyone’s life. Without the pressures of having to provide everything for yourself and having more freedom to choose how you spend your time without the consequences of work vs. play, high school used to be years full of memories and good times.
However, as we advance further and further into the new decade, more and more high school students have no choice but to seek employment and take on further responsibilities. For most students, the first major responsibility arrives on their sixteenth birthday in the form of freedom, or their first car. Whether or not the student has purchased the car with money saved up over years of allowance, birthday money, or even money earned working an early job like Burris detassling, a job that has consumed many of my summers, or the student is given the car as a gift from a family member, that car arrives with the gift of freedom and the curse of responsibility.
Owning a car means paying for gas, paying for insurance, and any other unexpected costs associated with the car such as speeding tickets or repairs. The answer to these increasing costs is that most students have to get a job. What was once their gateway to the freedom many children dream about from the earliest age now becomes the reason that they are forced to cut back on that juvenile freedom that was so sought after in the first place. Once complete freedom is finally within reach is when the jaws of reality and responsibility take their firmest hold.
I got real exposure to this harsh reality myself firsthand this summer. Shortly after returning from my trip abroad to Germany, I experienced a severe ankle injury that would put me on crutches for the entire summer. Normally the summer is when I make most if not all of the money that I spend throughout the rest of the year. Being on crutches I was unable to work my usual job at Burris as a crew boss since I couldn’t walk or drive.
Without my annual summer income, I’ve had to rely more on my parents for money to do activities with my friends than I have since I was in elementary school. Since I couldn’t work all summer, I’ve had to work hard to find a job since soccer season came to an end, and I’ve realized the truth that my parents have told me for a long time: finding a job really isn’t that easy. Luckily enough, I came into a seasonal job this fall that has allowed me to pay back the money I owe my parents along with the car insurance payment I owed; however, I still need to look for a more consistent job to get me through my winter activities.
A decade or two ago such concerns may never have crossed the mind of most high school students. Times are for sure changing and there’s no doubt students coming into college and starting their life may have a slightly better understanding of responsibility, but is it worth the time we could spend making memories and enjoying some of the most carefree years of our lives?