i just need to vent. this has really been dragging me down lately. tl;dr: i work almost 40 hours a week yet i’m extremely, horrendously, hilariously broke.
i’m about to start my senior year of undergrad. my tuition is about 9000 a semester, i pay 1000, i have a scholarship that pays another 1000, my mom is kind enough to pay the rest. i plan to go in to a very specialized field and going to grad school is necessary, but my mom said i would be on my own next time. (before someone bitches about it, i’m not upset with her at all, i understand completely and i’m grateful for the help she’s been able to give me so far)
i work over summer and winter break at a doctor’s office owned by my mom’s best friend’s husband. i get that i was 17 when i started working there. i get that i’m not there all year. but i wake up at 8 am and go to work for 9 hours a day, 4 days a week like everyone else there. after working 72 hours a pay period (i get paid every other week) i cannot think of any logical reason why my paycheck is barely over $300.
i shouldn’t have to pick one thing that costs under $50 to get for myself for my birthday (which falls over the summer) and christmas then immediately put the rest to savings. i have several medical conditions and have to see doctors pretty regularly. i shouldn’t have to cancel my appointments because i am unable to cover my $40 copay. i shouldn’t be pleasantly surprised by seeing $75 in my bank account and think “wow i’m rich today”. i’m angry that my one of my friends makes what i make in 2 weeks in just a weekend by working at a local pizza shop. i’m sick of getting confused looks when my friends say “it was only $90.” and i reply “what do you mean ONLY $90!?” i’m sick of my friends wanting to go out then one says “wait, does m have money?” and we have to wait to see if my mom will surprise me and send me $50 for the weekend. i feel like i am being taken advantage of. i’m at the prime of my youth and i’m wasting my summer staring at a computer screen for 9 hours and taking old peoples temperature.
the worst thing is that this job has absolutely nothing to do with my career goals. i graduate in 3 semesters and my resume is virtually blank. i even had to turn down an internship (that would have payed me a stipend of 7500 at the end of the summer) because my mother had already told her friend that i would be coming home to work with her because 3 people on her staff quit while i was away at school. i just can’t see how i’ll ever make it with this amount of pay and with my lack of connections. i honestly am starting to feel like my life is over before it’s even started.