All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy isn’t just a proverb for college students – it’s a way of life.
Nowadays, so-called summer jobs tend to stick around past summer, which when added to classes leaves hardly any room to focus solely on schoolwork, not to mention – where’s the play?
The term summer job reminisces back to when jobs were plentiful and when college was cheap enough that a summer’s worth of work covered the books and booze of two semesters of education.
With the rising prices of tuition and other college related commodities, is there really just a summer job anymore?
Katy Palmer and Todd Christopher, two Eastern Michigan University juniors who live and work on campus, might not be taking their jobs into the fall semester; but the jobs don’t always disappear with warm temperatures and summer sun just because of a full class load or weekend parties.
“I don’t think I will continue it through the year,” Christopher said about working at the Rec/IM building.
“The hours are cut and there’s significantly more people fighting for jobs, hours, and what not. It’s just easier to be night watch or OA.”
“Mine is literally only offered during the summer, but I do have jobs during the year so I can earn extra money and extra income,” Palmer said.
There are benefits to rolling work, school and play into one location — convenience.
With everything within walking distance, one saves money, has more free time, meets new people and, more importantly, doesn’t have to dread a commute.
“Instead of having a half hour to an hour commute you just have five to fifteen minutes,” Christopher said, who enjoys the accessibility of living on campus.
But what about students that don’t have the luxury of an on-campus job and housing — how do they cope with balancing a commute as well?
“Excellent time management is key to juggling work, school and play, especially as a commuter,” said Kaitlyn Burgett, an Eastern Michigan University junior who works over 20 miles away in Tecumseh.
Time management is something many struggle with, especially if their summer jobs trickle into what little free time a student has before and after class.
But with tuition, books and gas, quitting a summer job is nearly impossible.
“It’s hard to work and go to class and then come home and do homework, especially after a 12- or 13- hour day,” Burgett said. “And to then turn down going out with your friend is tough, but it’s what you have to do to be a student.”
“You really have to have your priorities, and for me it’s school first and foremost because I came here to be a student,” Palmer said.
“Having a social life is nice, but it’s not what I am here for.”
Summer jobs are different for everyone, whether they continue into the fall semester in one form or another is not important.
Students work to work.
They work a low-wage job so they can write papers at four in the morning pepped up on caffeine and anxiety, not because they partied it up like it was 1972, but because they were waiting tables ‘til midnight, or stocking shelves on the graveyard shift.
“You juggle all these things in life in hopes that one day it will be worth it,” Burgett said.
“That the schooling and work experience will get you places. Is it actually worth it? I don’t honestly know, but I am not giving up.”
Through it all though, students still find time to mingle with friends, escape from the grind of papers, lectures, work, and note taking for a little R&R, and it’s these moments that help keep a student from being ‘a dull boy.’
