Paying Rent: Being a Slave to “The Man”
I’ve recently started working two full time jobs while trying to maintain my GPA. Uh, needless to say my GPA is currently in the shitter and I wish I had more time so sleep. But this is what college is about. It’s about growing up, fucking up and biting off way more than you can chew at any given moment in time. I’m fucked right now because we’re almost halfway through the semester and I’m still struggling to stay afloat.
So here’s some advice to those of you who have to work and go to school:
Try it with just one job:
- A part time job a couple of times a week wont be so bad on your stress levels. It’s not gonna make you overload or call out all the time or be completely awful to your friends. Six or so hours 4 times a week should make you enough spending money and help you pay off some of your loans.
If that isn’t enough:
- Try working more a week at your first job or try to find an on campus job that only goes for three hours twice a week. Just a small addition onto your work and course load. Honestly it’s gonna be tough, but you gotta do what you gotta do right?
If You Find it Hard to Balance:
- If you catch yourself skipping classes on the day you have work so you can just catch up on rest then try scheduling your classes every other day around work, that way you can work 8 hours every other day and go to school. It works for some people.
If You’re Worried about Paying Rent:
- This is a whole other ball park in my opinion. If you can avoid moving off campus before you’re officially financially ready then do that. The dorms suck and so do roommates and suitemates but it’s pre-paid by your loans (if you’re covered fully) and most of the time you get out without owing a whole lot of money that you have to pay back (right away anyways).
If You’re in the Same boat as me:
- And you can’t get private loans so you’re stuck with an apartment that you’re not really financially ready for and you’re killing yourself working two jobs. Good luck and try to get sleep if you can. And if your college has counselling services on campus, go see a counselor most colleges offer them for free so take advantage of that (if you can manage any free time) because you’re going to slowly go crazy killing yourself like this. So get help while you can.
And if you’re wondering, yeah this kind of thing is part of growing up. Moving out, struggling to keep your head above the flood of responsibilities. It’s maddening. So stay young for as long as you can. Stay young and stay innocent because things just get harder. Yeah, you can sort of do what you want sometimes, but we’re all a slave to the system. So stay young and stay happy.