Responsibly Employed

Inspiration always seems to strike me at obscure hours of the night.  It's 4 am and for some reason it'll have a different time stamp when I post this, but whatever.  I almost posted this on my other blog - that one is mostly nonsense where as this one is where I try to address issues in society that bug me - but I think this post will work well on this blog.

I know a lot of people have differing opinions on whether or not teenagers should get jobs.  I also know that there are a lot of places of employment that prefer not to hire teenagers.  I, for one, think that's silly.

I've heard people say that teenagers should have jobs because they're irresponsible.  But here's what I want to know...how the hell are we supposed to learn how to be responsible if we never get a chance to try?

A really good example of this is myself compared to my twin brother.  His name is Liam and aside from one summer he spend painting a house for a family friend, he's never had a job.  I on the other hand, have been working since I was 15.  Not excessive hours or demanding labor, but I've had consistent employment.  My first job was teaching dance at a local studio, I worked there for three years and just this past year was hired by a new studio.  I also worked as a nanny last summer and was offered the position again this summer but I turned it down.  More recently I got my lifeguard certification and have already worked a week at a camp and just today was hired to guard at my school's pool as well as to do another week at the camp.

The differences between Liam and I are small, but important.  I do better in school - I graduated with honors, he did not.  I have a clean room, he does not.  I do my own laundry, he does not.  It's little responsibility type things here and there where the differences lie.  You could easily make the argument that it's just because he's a boy and I'm a girl, but we used to be much more similar - both irresponsible.  And then I got my first job where I was required to open and close a business all by myself, deal with parent's question and concerns all by myself, teach several classes of dancers all by myself and choreograph routines all by myself.  I had to learn responsibility and it translated into other sectors of my life.

So when I hear people who don't like the idea of teenagers having jobs, it's drives me nuts.  The best thing for a teenager is a job.  I'm kind of an expert on being a teenager and believe me, we could all use a little more responsibility.