Summer jobs provide loads of experiences

hat was your first job? Did you work over the summer? I was always looking for ways to earn money so that I could keep up with my horseback riding.

Before I could drive I had a vegetable stand on the side of Route 2. I picked blackberries and tomatoes in the morning and sold them in the afternoon as people headed home.

My first summer job after graduating from high school was working in the garden shop at a large department store. I’m sure I made minimum wage, my skirts had to be at least fingertip length and I learned a lot about lawnmowers. The next summer I was a counselor at a sleep away camp in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. I made friends with other college students from around the country.

None of this would help me specifically in my future career, but I learned about customer service, respect and some of the qualities of a good supervisor.

I also learned about taxes and what it does to your take home pay. I don’t remember buying anything specifically, but I do remember my mom teaching me how to balance my checkbook and doing my first tax return. I remember stretching my money at college and the times when I couldn’t go out to dinner because there wasn’t money in my budget. Even though I didn’t drive my car very much it seemed to cost a lot of money to keep it on the road. Planning to move out of the dorms and into an apartment with a friend was another lesson in extreme budgeting that I probably couldn’t have done if I hadn’t already had budgeting experience from my summer job. There are a lot of benefits to students having a summer job. It might lead to a career, but more likely a summer job will be an essential part of independence and growing up.

Donna Jefferson, Publisher DJ@jecoannapolis.com