I was working with a student recently on a math assignment, a fictional budget. I pointed out to him that if this were for real, his actual salary would likely be less, and his actual expenses would likely be more (perhaps much more), than the information specified by the teacher in this assignment. How many people do you or your parents know who work two or more jobs simply to make ends meet? How many families do you know where both parents must work in order to provide a comfortable life? No, I do not mean families where both parents choose to work, where one of them could be a stay-at-home parent if they wished, but where both parents must work simply to provide.
Life can be hard, and this financial difficulty (especially in California where cost of living is astronomical and salaries have completely failed to keep pace for the overwhelming majority of working adults) is one glaring example. I have had hard times, on occasion very hard times, in my life. You can ask any working adult, and they can share their own stories about hard times, I am not unique in the fact of having experienced hard times. In fact, my hard times are certainly not as bad as some other people’s hard times.
Not everyone you meet in this life is going to care about you as much as your parents and instructors. Most will care considerably less. Enjoy the safe time you have now at home, where your living expenses are covered by your parents, and the people with authority over you (parents and teachers) actually place high priority on your well-being, before you become an adult and must make your own way in a world that can at times be harsh and unforgiving. There was a female employee at an Amazon warehouse who became pregnant. Not surprisingly, she requested work that would involve less heavy manual labor. Her request was denied, she was forced to keep working at heavy labor. She suffered a miscarriage. This kind of thing happens in the working world. I experienced something similar (although non-life-threatening) when I became injured and my employer would not allow disability leave to recover fully, leading to a long and lingering injury. I have not been able to pick up my son with both arms for over two years for fear of re-injury. My former employer could not care less. Despite protestations about concern for employees’ well-being, in reality the employer only cares about making as much profit from your labor as possible while paying you as low a salary as they can possibly get away with. If you get crippled, they do not care because they can hire someone else to replace you in a matter of weeks or less time.
Your parents and family may love you unconditionally (at least I hope they do). Other people will not. Your girlfriend may love you only as long as she thinks you are strong and a good future provider and protector. Lose your job or your health? She might stay with you. She might not. Your parents and family will forgive far more than many other people will in this life.
Admittedly, you can make choices that make life easier or harder. You can choose to be a lawyer or financial analyst working 80+ hour workweeks. Or you can choose to be an engineer at a firm that is chill enough where the usual workweek is only 40 hours. You can choose to try to attract and date the hot girl who is high maintenance with a nasty attitude, or you can choose a girl with a more relaxed personality that actually brings peace rather than negative drama to your life. You can choose to work one month a year as a graphic designer in the USA, while spending the remaining eleven months teaching SCUBA diving in the Philippines. Or you can choose to be a trauma surgeon working long hours under immense pressure to perform flawlessly every single time. You can choose to get a good education and gain skills that will allow you to find a comfortable job with a comfortable salary. Or you can choose to skip out on education and do back breaking manual labor for minimum wage.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.