All in all, I have some fairly expensive hobbies: I play PC games, but newly-released titles cost upwards of $70 nowadays; I collect vinyl records, which run for an average of $25 apiece; Just in the last three months alone, I’ve shilled out more than $500 on shooting supplies in hopes that I can make a start in competitive trap. Couple all of that with occasional phone payments, car repairs, movie tickets, and gas, and I’m running out of saved money, and fast. My predicament is not unique: Teens spend a lot of money on a lot of different things – whether it be concert tickets or new designer tennis shoes – and it’s hard to sustain that sort of spending pattern without going flat broke.
For me, school has never been easier. As a senior, I come and go from campus more or less as I please, and because of my fistful of open blocks and blended classes, I’m always out the door after just a few hours’ time. Coursework is smooth, homework is light, and for maybe the first time in my academic career the majority of my time at home can be spent on myself. Hot off the heels of the veritable gauntlet that was junior year, the South senior workload is a godsend.
So why, you might ask, don’t I just get a job? If I’m strapped for cash and school’s not an issue, the logical next step is to send around some applications. My response to that is this: My current unemployment is not for lack of trying, and certainly not for lack of interest. You see, there’s something else major barring me from looking for a job: Varsity swimming.
Swim practice, for both club and high school, sits right in the middle of the afternoon, in a valuable 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. time slot. Practices are daily, mind you, with little to no exception. And that doesn’t even begin to mention meets – which can last hours into the evening – and early morning weight training sessions that require me to rise even before the sun. It’s all so taxing, and it saps the time I would be able to put towards a job.
No matter which way I shake it, even despite my liberating academic schedule, I could never find the time to do schoolwork, go to swim practice, and pick up a shift all in the same day, doubly so because the specific time that practice occupies means I simply can’t do a job for more than couple hours at a time. And to make matters worse, college is just over the horizon, and I desperately need to get together some wages and experience in order to be successful going forward.
In my hopes to get a steady job, my senior status has afforded me a unique opportunity to pursue gainful employment that I never would have even imagined in years past. Conversely, my continued commitment to varsity athletics precludes me from picking up any sort of consistent shifts whatsoever. What’s a guy to do in this kind of situation? Because for this senior, and I imagine many like me, time is ticking down, expenses are mounting, and I feel like I’m running low on solutions.
