by Emily H

I took my first part time job two months after I turned 16, the legal working age in Florida and most US states, cashiering for the shoe department at JCPenney, a large department store attached to the smaller of Pensacola's two malls. It was November and the big holiday season rush had already started. Lines were long and my work shoes, a pair of clunky, black flats, pinched my toes and gave me blisters. I stood on my feet for hours. Customers, though occasionally friendly, were often mean, and when I got home, usually at nine or ten in the evening, there was always still homework to do. I was certainly learning the definition of work.

In the end, though, I pulled through and was even offered a nonseasonal job after Christmas, organizing towels and helping customers in the housewares department upstairs. Tired, but finally having gotten the hang of the whole job thing, I took the offer and have been working, in one way or another, ever since.

In high school, my jobs were limited to the retail sector, a product of my young age, but in college, thanks to work study, a federal program that offers students spending money in exchange for working on their college campuses, I was able to expand my work experience. Shortly after entering college, I took a job working as a student assistant in the Office of Admission, filing papers, maintaining spreadsheets, and creating e-mail campaigns to market my college to prospective students. While the job was completely different than my previous work experience, I found quickly that I loved the office environment and the type of autonomy I was given over my tasks. My boss, a recent graduate of my college, was amazing and always gave me great advice about work and about school.

I started off at just ten hours a week in the Office of Admission, spending only a few hours a day in the office. By my junior year, after working as an assistant for two years, however, I was offered a higher position as an events intern and the duties of my job expanded. While my focus was certainly still on my studies, I put equal energy into my job, staffing weekend-long events and coordinating volunteers after hours. My senior year only brought more responsibility as I became a senior intern for the office, staffing area college fairs and working more extensively on events.

Although it became difficult to balance work and school as my job transitioned, the experiences I gained working for the Office of Admission were invaluable. Just as working at JCPenney helped form my high school experience, my college experience was shaped from both my classes and my four years at the Office of Admission. When I look back at my time in college, I remember the hours I spent working just as vividly as I remember the classes I took on Renaissance drama and Virginia Woolf.