The moment I stepped into the work force almost ten years ago at the age of 16, it became almost immediately clear to me that corporate interests did not take my well-being seriously.
My first job was at a local movie theater. The job itself was honestly not bad at all, and offered perks like free movies and popcorn for me and any friends I brought, which was invaluable for a high school student. I worked there for almost the entire school year, but ended up quitting when the managers kept us late to do a “deep clean” until 3am on a school night because they had caught wind that an inspection was taking place the following day.
I remember my mom being really understanding of my decision to quit, as she had been calling me periodically the night of that shift asking if they had let me clock out yet. It was a true moment of solidarity, and sparked within me a mentality of “putting my foot down” when a job displayed characteristics like that.
So that’s what I did. I worked a few more jobs in high school, though not for as long as the theater. Panera Bread for a few months, but decided to quit after several weeks back to back being scheduled to close the entire restaurant by myself, only to be scolded that it was taking me over two hours a night to do so.
My parents were still understanding, albeit a little annoyed this time, saying I could’ve given notice.
When college rolled around in 2016, I was encouraged by my parents (who were in the thick of a divorce) to not work my first year, as I had received a full tuition scholarship and needed to focus on adjusting to college life. I received a small allowance, and things were going great. I was then involved in an accident two months into the school year when a drunk driver in a stolen vehicle t-boned a car I was a passenger in. One TBI and several weeks of missed classes later, I dropped out of college much to my parent’s chagrin.
In the years since, I have worked many different jobs, ranging from ski instructor to call center agent to even being an English teacher in Costa Rica. I’ve done seasonal work in Alaska on whale watching boats, and now I work a seasonal job at an old inn on the Maine coast. I enjoy the seasonal work because it actually allows me to save money, but as time has gone on I’ve begun to wish I had my own place to rest my head instead of oftentimes sharing a room with someone else.
This job I’m currently in has offered a lot of shiny new things on my resume. With high employee turnover, I’ve gone from front desk agent to front office supervisor in two short months, putting me at a whopping 19 dollars an hour. The 60-70 hour weeks have been grueling, with me oftentimes getting called in to support the team. Whatever works, I guess – it’s good for the resume, right?
Well perhaps not. Looking at a number of cities across the country (obviously excluding notorious COL places like NYC, Denver, LA, and Seattle) I haven’t come across a single studio apartment for less than 1300 a month, and anything less than 1700 is often in dangerous or run down parts of town.
I feel like I’m going legitimately insane. I checked the median salary for front desk managers, and in most states it’s around 50,000 a year. Even on that salary, it would be almost impossible to find a studio apartment to rent and be able to save money for emergencies, investing in myself, or even take a trip somewhere. That’s not even accounting for the costs of having a car, since this fucking country doesn’t have any decent public transportation and walking to work for an hour or two to get 5 miles somewhere doesn’t seem all that appealing.
Why is it that someone who works an actual BIG KID job can’t even afford a fucking APARTMENT. Not even to OWN. Like what the FUCK are we DOING???
WHO THE FUCK IS GONNA DO SOMETHING?! It’s honestly fucking insane what’s happening and it doesn’t feel like anything is coming from it? Are we going to just continue shoving ourselves into cramped houses paying bloated rent to landlords that use our hard earned money to visit the fucking AZORES for the third time of the year? I can hardly fine decent fuckin roommates that don’t eat my food or are on time with the rent, and I can’t even fuckin blame them because we’re all just going crazy here.
As someone who’s currently been sober from alcohol for a while it’s no shock to me that alcohol sales are through the roof. I’m sure if I was drinking again I’d have less time to stew and think about how FUCKED we all are.
It’s really enough to make you wanna just go to sleep forever. And why?
Why do we toil like this; What have we become?
When will we stop playing this game?