Since all of us can remember our parents have said “you need a summer job” or “you need a job now”. Thinking of it now with the real world creeping up more and more, summer jobs gave a lot of people the stability and growth to be able to work in the “real world”.
For someone who has been working a summer job for the past six years, it made me realize the importance of going to work every day and having to tell people “no I can’t make it I have work” or “no I can’t just call in, they are expecting me their today”. Just a few examples of what you have to say to someone who doesn’t work during the summer and doesn’t understand the importance of going. My summer job is lifeguarding at a private beach club on Long Island.
I learned from working there for the past six years is that you have to go to work even if you don’t want to and that you are going to work with people that you aren’t going to like. One thing about the beach club is that my family friends own it, so learning to work with “family” is probably the hardest thing to do. A lot of summer jobs are working with family, and with that comes extra eyes on you and making sure you are doing everything right and not messing something up.
We see summer jobs as an outlet for money when we are 16 and starting to work, but at 22 I see it as a place that I grew up and became responsible and being able to manage time between work and social life. Being able to hold a job for past 6 years at the same place, and being able to hold this type of responsibility, helps with going into the ‘real world’ by being able to take control of certain situations and know what to do at any time. Being a lifeguard taught me not only to be someone in charge of young children but also be able to connect with people older than me. The process of being a lifeguard is that you have to be able to help and socialize with all ages and this helps with going into the real world because you are going to have to socialize with everyone at all ages.
Not saying that summer jobs help you with this idea but it brings a lot of responsibility to yourself and shows that you are committed to something. It also shows you that your summers aren’t just your time off from school, but it is your time to grow as someone and gain experience. Experience in an area of a field that might not actually be your real full-time job is usually not the skill you hear but its the skill of learning how you can take those skills into another place.
So don’t be afraid to take that summer job, not have a social life, and earn money that you might just spend right away. Be able to learn from this job in the three months you have of it because you never know what lesson you are going to take from it. Also, you never are going to be able to look back on something and realize that summer job wasn’t just a summer job it was something part of my life and I enjoyed going their everyday.
