Whistle While Your Slave
We're almost one month into the semester and with three, possibly four football victories later (can you tell we wrote this on Monday?) the initial college culture shock consisting of your emo roommate and professor, who is only five years older than you, is coming to a close. However, you now have another problem as the Ministry of Plenty (aka Financial Aid) has already dispersed all remaining funding leftover from more critical programs like Division I and the parking garage; after all, if we can't park in an enclosed structure, we can't study. You didn't get the financial aid because FAFSA, in all it's infinite bureaucratic wisdom, decreed that since you're parents make enough money to barely afford the house payments that they are perfectly capable to dish out $11,269 a year for tuition. Adding insult to financial injury, if you're like me and other Norwegians, who couldn't use our ethnicity to gain scholarships or financial aid, you've probably had to resort to the unthinkable by offering your services to retail and/or fast food.
It's bad enough that you're taking on a second job to help pay off the first job, that is being a student, to help you get a third job to pay off the loans on the first job (don't make me get out the flow chart), but now you're serving the very people who DID get the financial aid. Such customers include a wide variety of human prodigy who either want a cheeseburger with no cheese and a 44oz McVodka (drink VERY responsibly, Captain's orders) or think the express lane means the cashiers work faster. You would rather A) sell both your kidneys, B) be a mannequin at the Plain Brown Wrapper, or C) work for Parking Services, than sell your soul for $6.55 per hour pawning trans-fatty acids and products made in China. No matter how much you loath it, like paying taxes, tuition, and being stuck with the UND Pride Card you don't have to like it, you just have to do it.
However, as Captain Kirk always said, “There... is... always... hope (Unless you're wearing a red shirt).”
There are several benefits to working while in college as well as survival tips. The most obvious benefit is you get paid real money and not some BS about how volunteering your time on campus or your community is “investing in your future.” If community service hours were actual legal tender Mother Teresa could buy out Google and the Dalai Lama could buy his country back. This is not to negate the importance of community service or selflessness, but Student Account Service does not accept goodwill... or Visa for that matter.
The next benefit is building your resume. Yeah, it sucks to serve people who order a double quarter-pounder meal super-sized with a diet coke or think Velveeta Cheese is worth it's weight in gold, but the fact that you did all that while successfully maintaining a decent GPA and graduated on time speaks volumes about your character and abilities as a professional in your field. Not to mention hard work builds character as Amazon.com Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos started as a cook at McDonald's and Sam Walton of Wal-Mart waited tables to pay his way through college at the University of Missouri.
The last, and probably the most critical, tip on working your way through college is paid internships that don't involve working in the White House. If you play your cards right you can get paid while gaining college credit instead of paying to learn through regular credits.
In conclusion, be aware of balancing your time... *gets out flow chart* you don't want the second job to interfere with the first job in the first place as this will affect your ability to get a third job when you're done with your first job or you might get fired from your second job for placing too much priority on your first job or getting thrown out from the first job for working too much with the second job thereby not securing a third job to pay for the first job. Now who can argue with that?
It's bad enough that you're taking on a second job to help pay off the first job, that is being a student, to help you get a third job to pay off the loans on the first job (don't make me get out the flow chart), but now you're serving the very people who DID get the financial aid. Such customers include a wide variety of human prodigy who either want a cheeseburger with no cheese and a 44oz McVodka (drink VERY responsibly, Captain's orders) or think the express lane means the cashiers work faster. You would rather A) sell both your kidneys, B) be a mannequin at the Plain Brown Wrapper, or C) work for Parking Services, than sell your soul for $6.55 per hour pawning trans-fatty acids and products made in China. No matter how much you loath it, like paying taxes, tuition, and being stuck with the UND Pride Card you don't have to like it, you just have to do it.
However, as Captain Kirk always said, “There... is... always... hope (Unless you're wearing a red shirt).”
There are several benefits to working while in college as well as survival tips. The most obvious benefit is you get paid real money and not some BS about how volunteering your time on campus or your community is “investing in your future.” If community service hours were actual legal tender Mother Teresa could buy out Google and the Dalai Lama could buy his country back. This is not to negate the importance of community service or selflessness, but Student Account Service does not accept goodwill... or Visa for that matter.
The next benefit is building your resume. Yeah, it sucks to serve people who order a double quarter-pounder meal super-sized with a diet coke or think Velveeta Cheese is worth it's weight in gold, but the fact that you did all that while successfully maintaining a decent GPA and graduated on time speaks volumes about your character and abilities as a professional in your field. Not to mention hard work builds character as Amazon.com Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos started as a cook at McDonald's and Sam Walton of Wal-Mart waited tables to pay his way through college at the University of Missouri.
The last, and probably the most critical, tip on working your way through college is paid internships that don't involve working in the White House. If you play your cards right you can get paid while gaining college credit instead of paying to learn through regular credits.
In conclusion, be aware of balancing your time... *gets out flow chart* you don't want the second job to interfere with the first job in the first place as this will affect your ability to get a third job when you're done with your first job or you might get fired from your second job for placing too much priority on your first job or getting thrown out from the first job for working too much with the second job thereby not securing a third job to pay for the first job. Now who can argue with that?