Workin’ Nine to Five

You really want a job. You applied everywhere in your neighborhood, even places you would never want to be seen in. To you, a job is a job and you need some extra money for the upcoming summer. However, money isn’t the only reward for entering the workforce. Having a job as a teenager prepares young adults for their careers and teaches them how to handle confrontation. Though many jobs may not be as fun or as easy as you would like, they do teach some valuable (and not so valuable) lessons.   

 Even if you are sure you are right, you’re not…the customer is

    No matter how sure of your answer you are, the customer’s opinion always takes precedence. This is especially true with face-to-face customer service. You could bet a million dollars that that woman said, “I am going to eat that here,” but when the sales tax shows up on the receipt, she claims she told you “to go.” Take a breath, say sorry about the mistake and move on. Trivial arguments are not worth losing a customer over, especially when it was only 19 cents of sales tax…

You represent the business you are working for

    Though you did not make the product you are selling with your bare hands, customers may attribute any mistake to you. People get caught up in their emotions and forget that you are only a teenager trying to make a little cash for summer. It is common for a customer to act as if you saw him or her come into the store and you purposely shut off the flavor he or she wanted just to spite them. If a customer overreacts to a problem, don’t sweat it because it’s not personal. You are the face of your company, so you will have to back the blow for any minor malfunctions.

Bosses are bossy

    The job description may sound easy, but managers do not want to pay their workers to do nothing. Bosses will frequently give you a laundry list of chores and you need to just smile and say, “Of course I will do this for you. Let me know if there is anything else.” Don’t expect to be relaxing on the job or for your boss to ask nothing of you. They want to get their money’s worth.

Coworkers are not for dating

    Even if he is really cute and really nice, don’t even try it. It may seem convenient and fun at first, but you must consider the extremely high chance that you two just weren’t meant to be. That makes for an awkward and uncomfortable work shift for you, him and all your other coworkers. Plus, it’s classier to keep you work life separate from your love life.

You are just a kid

    Do not expect that everyone is going to respect you immediately. You are in high school and probably working one of your first jobs ever. Customers, bosses and older coworkers may not take you seriously at first, but take this as a challenge. Gain the respect of the people around you and show them that you are serious about your job. Throughout your whole life, people will constantly be judging you and it is important to know how to make their judgments positive ones. 

    Though these may seem like harsh realities, in the end you will be glad you learned early in life. Having a job as a teenager will help you learn how to interact responsibly with people and how to take criticism.

All Stars On and Off the Field

We often find it difficult to listen to the wisdom of elders, teachers and parents. We would rather drown them out with iPods and remixes of the latest and most popular music than listen to the trite spiels discussing educational values. But sports give off a different effect. Sports often teach students lessons and skills without the 60-minute lecture attached. Student athletes learn to budget their time, collaborate with others and take responsibility for their actions.
“My academic life revolves around my planner,” said junior Emily Wolf who plays field hockey for Presentation. Involvement in sports forces students to take their work seriously, allotting time in their evening routine for papers, projects, reading assignments and last minute cramming. The lack of excess time after school often minimizes the amount of time students waste lurking on Facebook or vegging out on the sofa. In fact, according to a study at Marietta College, student athletes performed better during season than out of season. Optimal GPAs were achieved following regularly scheduled practices, games and work out sessions.
Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, said, “It’s not just that the people who are going to do well in life play sports, but that sports help people do better in life,” she said, adding, “While I only show this for girls, it’s reasonable to believe it’s true for boys as well,” following an extensive study on sports participation and educational achievement.
Sports teach athletes long-term skills and assets needed for success in the real world. It promotes and indirectly emphasizes team building, leadership, endurance, positivity, problem solving, creativity and the ability to read others. Athletes are expected to envision the field or area of play through strategic analysis and accurate body positioning. Athletes must learn to work well with others in order to achieve a greater goal, mediating disputes and reconciling differences. This is the key to team cohesion and ultimately success.
The emergence of team solidarity develops through the ties of friendship and sisterhood. Friendship, more so than any score or trophy, is a lasting testimony to the success of any team. Friends are tangible memories, serving as the legacy of the team and its accomplishments. “Friends become family,” said sophomore Kayla Bose who plays varsity basketball. While knees, joints, and other body parts may give out over time, bearing the scars of a dedicated athlete, friends will last forever.

Spending time out on the field is also said to relieve stress and the burden of excessive amounts of homework. According to an article by Joseph Plazo of StressLive.Com, “It’s imperative to partake in physical exercise because inspiring the body refreshes the mind. Our brain requires activity by the rest of our body in order to regenerate the senses and enhance performance.” Exercise is an essential component of mental and physical help, much like sleeping and eating. Junior and golfer Jessie Walsh said, “Sports is an outlet for stress. It gets your mind off school.”
For many Presentation students, dedication to both sports and academics is a testament to their willingness to balance their lives in order to learn lifelong skills, forge bonds of friendship, and relieve stress on the court, field, diamond, green, track, or wherever their sport takes them. Despite the struggles of the daily balancing act, many students find involvement in sports rewarding. For some, it boosts self-esteem and confidence along with lasting implications for their future.

Sports are teachers without white boards, tests without grades, and homework assignments without point values. Athletes are evaluated by their ability to work with others, make progress, and think logically. It’s not about whether you make the grade; it’s about learning from mistakes and taking away the greater message.