We go to school, sit down for a few hours, and we get lectured. In high school, we are being prepared for college, but not for life. The most important things I learned in life- money management and working hard- weren’t learned in school. When I was 16, I took on the challenge of buying my own car.
Today it seems that most teenagers are handed a car at one point or another. My family really didn’t have the money to buy a car, nor did they really believe in just giving it freely. Their solution: I bought my dad’s old Ford Torus. The breaks squeaked no matter what you did, the tape player didn’t work, and it had an old-fashioned cigarette lighter installed in the car, which wasn’t of any use to me since I didn’t smoke. Nonetheless, I wanted that car more than anything.
I had a problem though; I had no money and no job. I had to go get my certification as a lifeguard in order to get my job, which set me back even more. After that, I was even more determined to work hard and earn the car myself. It took an entire summer of working long hours, but I earned enough money that I could buy the car from my dad. I didn’t save every single penny I earned, I still went out with friends occasionally, but I learned how to manage my money efficiently enough that I was able to work hard and still enjoy my summer. In school we learn time management, but never money management. I had to miss a lot of opportunities to hang out with friends to earn money, and I had to avoid even more to stop myself from spending that money, but in the end, it was completely worth it. Now, I work hard in everything I do so that I can achieve more in my life, schoolwork, and everything in between, and that’s something I learned on my own outside of school.
