I’m 18. I don’t have a job. Why is that?
To tell the truth, I really don’t know. I’ve always managed to make enough money, and never really missed having huge wads of cash in my pocket. I’ve earned my fair share of dollars over the years, and bought plenty of stuff1. Presents for people, soccer cleats (expensive!), software, and then small ticket items. But I’m really frugal. I haven’t bought any clothes in over a year – I just make due with what I have.
But now I really need a job. I might go off to college this fall, I’ll surely want some money by then. Whatever else I might do, it won’t be staying at home and living off my parents, and I will have to pay for it somehow!
I’ve always kept myself quite busy in my freetime tooling around: with computers, bikes, anything. I play sports a lot, and having fun takes up most of my freetime. I’ve never been able to justify getting a real job, since throughout high school I’ve had soccer or tennis after school, leaving no too little time to hold a job make any decent amount of money. Now that all that is winding down, I’ve got plenty of time on my hands, but I still haven’t managed to get anyone to hire me.
I’ve done a lot of work over the years, and always managed to have some money laying around to blow. In fifth grade I got a paper route, delivering papers twice a month to every house within a 30 block area nearby my house. That was hard work, but I loved it. I had to be real creative to do it: My dad would drive me to the paper pickup station Wednesday after school, we would fill the trunk of his car up with bundles of papers (a community paper, delivered to everyone in southwest minneapolis) haul them home, and throw them into the garage. From there I was on my own. I rigged an old burley to carry papers behind my bike, and would ride through my delivery area and drop papers at every corner. Then on my way back I would walk the papers, delivering them four blocks at a time and moving up the street back towards my house. I loved the job, it was fun, and $50 a month (I was probably getting paid about $8/hour) was a phenomenal wage for a 12 year old.
Soccer refereeing is the other money making job I’ve worked, picking up a few games a week each paying $20 to $30. The games take between an hour and hour forty minutes, plus time to get to the fields a little early. When I can get a block of games scheduled, three on a good night, I really start making money – and most importantly, reffing is fun work. I get to move around, watch soccer games, not to mention I already know the rules, so its pretty simple.
There is just something about stocking shelves that I don’t want any of. Why would I want to stand behind a counter and ring up peoples orders? I’ve never really cared about money, like I said, I hardly ever spend any. But going off to college soon I will need to start spending a little money. Lots, even. And where is it going to come from?
I might just need a lot of it too – a laptop, backup device, and all the miscellaneous dorm room accessories. I started a list of things to bring to college, and I expect it will just keep growing. If I don’t end up going to college straight out of high school that list doesn’t get much shorter. So now I’m gonna have to go off and get a damn job.
1 My two favorite purchases so far have been my iPod and VC200 account at Textdrive, together taking about $475 out of my bank account.
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