There is so much pressure while being a student, especially as it gets closer to senior year. Classes get harder, extracurriculars get heavier, and applying to colleges starts. College is super expensive and with juggling all these other things, grades might start to fall which will lead to less scholarships. So most juniors and seniors focus all of their time working at a part time job to try to save up some extra money. However, if grades are more important to a certain person, they might just not get a job and try to get more scholarships. If someone is in a bunch of extracurriculars, trying to manage good grades with a job gets very challenging and stressful. Some seniors don’t do extracurriculars and instead work two jobs; others focus on extracurriculars and keeping their grades up with no job. However, doing all three leaves little time for anything else, including the approaching deadline for college applications. Along with college applications, worrying about saving money for college adds a lot of unnecessary stress to seniors. Paying for gas, food, and other necessities takes up all the money students need to save. Saving money for these expenses is hard, but extra hard if a person is only working a couple times a week.
The biggest advantage of working one or more jobs is the money. Senior Adelaide Peters works two jobs currently; she works at her local vet clinic everyday after school, while also working old navy shifts over the weekend and sometimes after her vet clinic job. In the summer, Adelaide always worked at the Elk’s too. “The biggest advantage is definitely the money,” states Adelaide. “Not only do I have to pay my car payment every month, but I also have to save a lot of money for college.” Adelaide focuses all of her extra time on working to try to save money, but she explained it’s hard to find time to hang out with friends with all the work she does. Senior Mason Haag works one job at Mockingbird bakery. Mason always stays on top of his grades and is in a lot of clubs as well. “Having extra money to spend on whatever I want is really nice,” agrees Mason. “However, sometimes it gets hard to get all of my work done.” Alex Hmielak shared that he also enjoyed having the money aspect of it. “Having money is good because it helps me be self-sustaining,” agrees Alex. Mason, Alex, and Adelaide are both top ten percent of seniors academically at Rochester High School. This proves that managing school and work can be hard, but it can be done.
The biggest disadvantage of working while being a full time student is the free time. Not only is there more time to finish schoolwork, but also there’s time to explore. Senior Alex Hmielak has worked two jobs before. He worked at Starbucks, as well as Old Navy. However, he stopped working because he wanted to focus more on school work. “The biggest disadvantage was the amount of time it took,” explained Alex. “I had literally no free time.” Alex is also very in tune with his school work. He said it was very easy to get back on track with school and other things after he stopped working. With having a job, it’s very hard to have good time management. “A lot of the time I have to stay up to finish schoolwork which is really hard,” voices Adelaide. Not getting enough sleep is a big reason why students do worse in school, so having to stay up late will impact students greatly. “I had to cut some of my hours so I could focus on studying and finishing school work for my hard classes,” mentioned Mason. Even with just one job, managing everything is challenging and takes a toll on some student’s mental health. Having not only the pressure to get good grades, but also to save enough money for college, is very taxing but necessary.
Students should not have to worry about their mental health while managing all of these things. Having work be a priority while being a student is insanely difficult. Some people who get jobs just say they are working to have a little extra money. However, for most students they have to not participate in extracurricular activities, so they can work more. Even if a student enjoys their job, they shouldn’t have to make it their whole life and have to worry about finishing school work. Before a student even has to pay for college, they have to get in. Nonetheless, if a student spends all their time working and their grades start to slip, they might not get in or not get any scholarships. This is a very stressful thing to have to worry about. Fortunately most kids have their parents to fall back on, but some have to pay for their own cars, phones, and their entire college fund is paid for by themselves. Having these thoughts on top of every other stressor is strenuous.
Students should be able to enjoy their high school experience without having to be stressed out about something. While there are a lot of things to think about, there should be some joy during high school. Students should remember that it’s okay to take a day for themselves and calm down while trying to figure everything out for their future selves. It’s okay to enjoy life and take a breath from stressors.
