You are not quite old enough to be looking for a real job or even an internship. You are ready to start doing what you will be doing for the rest of your life but you are just a little under qualified.
It is the summer between your old high school summer job and your future.The future you are spending thousands of dollars on to be able to do for the rest of your life. I just finished my freshmen year of college and I am home for the summer. I am going to school for nursing but do not have my CNA to be able to care for people yet. And I am stuck in job limbo.
For three years I was a lifeguard at my neighborhood pool. Then for the past two, I have been teaching swim lessons and working the concession stand. I like it. It's fun and easy. The people I work with are my age so we can chat about college and our majors and everything else college students talk about. And we have one thing in common; we can't start our real life job yet. I am making chicken strips with future lawyers and therapists and who knows what else. But we are just under qualified to have an internship or actually do the job of our dreams.
And we still make close to minimum wage. And we have way less money than we did in high school. Working the summer used to keep me set for the school year. Now, I am making 8 dollars and have a lot more things to pay for on my own. Heck, I am supposed to be an adult but it is much harder when you have no money to pay for your life.
My sister is also a nursing major, but she just has one year of school left. This summer she landed an awesome internship where she gets payed and gets to take care of tiny babies. She will work about half as much as me and make double. But her responsibilities as an intern in the NICU are much heavier than mine. If I mess up, there are some burnt french fries. If she messes up, there is a baby's life on the line. So to say the least, it makes sense why she makes so much more than her concession stand working little sister.
But in the grand scheme of things, an extra summer of teaching kids how to swim and making snacks is not so bad. I am always waiting for the next step in my life to get here. Counting down the days until I can be a nurse. But I did this with high school and college, and so many other things. I have to be careful not to wish my life away and focus on the now. To think about having a summer off to work a part time job is very rare in the real world. My summers will soon come to an end and I will miss them more than I thought I could.
