Balancing jobs and school

High schoolers are already swamped with school work and extracurricular activities. However, certain students at Aragon face a different challenge: balancing their social, school and work commitments. 

After a long day of school, instead of going home or to other activities, some students start work. This adds another few hours of responsibilities, making it even harder to balance their schedules. 

“I don’t sleep,” said senior Owen Browne, who works at the bakery SimplyCake. 

Having a job requires a large time commitment, and can often lead to conflicts in schedules. However, there is  generally flexibility at some workplace for students to choose when they work.

“I normally try to pick even days because we get out earlier, [and weekends],” said junior Christopher Chu, who works at Avenida Restaurant.

I don’t sleep

Sometimes, when school work, extracurriculars and job responsibilities all ramp up, it can be hard to manage. 

“It’s very difficult to plan the business club meetings and also study for any tests that happen to be on the [next day,] especially since I … have  [demanding classes] on the same day,” Browne said. “And they like to give tests on Fridays. It’s sort of scary sometimes.” 

This happens to many students with jobs, as school responsibilities increase on certain weeks whether or not a student has work or other commitments.

“I was [on] the planning team [at work] so I was doing that on top of working pretty much every day,” said senior Josh Rountree, who works at Movement, a rock climbing gym in Belmont. “I would get home at eight and so anytime I had to grind out an essay or study for something it was a really massive pain.”

In some instances, the amount of responsibilities a student has ends up catching up to them. 

“[This] happened a lot during finals week,” Rountree said. “[There] were days where I just wouldn’t be able to work. I’d give my shifts to someone else because I had to study for finals.”

For junior Alonzo Ferraez, this difficult balance has resulted in choosing one priority over another.

“One time, one of [the] workers couldn’t come in so I had to step in and work for them,” Ferraez said. “[It] was really packed and it was really stressful because everyone started calling in saying that I was late for the certain appointment. I [made] a commitment [to work, so even though] I had a test in history [the next day] … I just took the loss of not studying.”

However, while jobs take up many students’ time, they are manageable with good time organization. 

… I just took the loss of not studying

“I usually do the … homework that’s due the day after I work … [on] the day before,” said senior Olivia Low, who works at ShareTea. “So I don’t have to worry about my homework while I’m at work.”

Having a schedule for which days to work, school and social life help students spend their time more efficiently and freely.

“If I know that I’m going to be super busy one weekend, or I’m going to be doing something with friends during the weekend, and if I’m also working, I’ll try to get my homework done before that,” Rountree said.

Getting a job during high school years may be a tough commitment, but with a good balance of time, it is manageable and rewarding.