Sophomore year I sold molly to all the older girls who were back home from freshman year at Ball State. Not sure if it built character, but I did make some good money and got some great memories.
My best summer job was working at a marina mowing, fixing boats, gassing up boats, checking out rentals, etc. Lots of hard work, but almost every week there would be a group give that would give us drugs or booze when doing rental checklists & such. One time there was a group of ladies that needed extra help from a couple of us while they were out on the lake. What a summer. I gained many skills & life experience that summer, not much to do in winter though…
Every summer from 6th grade until I started high school, I laid flooring with my grandpa. Super hard work, but it was so much fun being around one of my favorite humans ever. We had some really fun times. He gave me $100 a week, which as a 11 year old, was good money back then.
When I got to high school, I worked retail with all my friends. Met some really good people that I'm still good friends with, even after all these years. Not hard work, but it allowed me to meet different people from all walks of life and learned how to deal with them.
Family owned a lumberyard, so from the age of 13 worked summers at the yard unloading box cars and assisting in the delivery of goods. Prior to that, worked a couple of years on the tenant farms owned by a family friend.
As a younger kid spent my summers with Uncle Carter doing odd jobs at his summer cottage. Uncle Carter really wasn't my uncle. He was a retired family friend and neighbor who adopted me as his "summer nephew".
@goat I feel horny just hearing about that drug. I missed out on a lot of that
All through my preteen and teen years, I did farm work. In addition to all the stuff we had going on, I had several farmers who would call me to bale hay. From around the first of June until I went back to school, I was busy 5-7 days/week and was paid in cash.
I worked in a meat packing plant the summer before I left for school and construction for 2 summers after I started. Then worked retail through the rest of college.
All the farm work taught me how to work and not complain about working.
The job at the meat packing plant taught me that I didn't want to fuck up my life and end up there for 40 years.
The construction job helped build basic skills that I had basic knowledge of and that I still use as a homeowner.
Retail gave me the chance to manage/train people and I did the book keeping on the weekends, so I could add that to my resume.
All of them forced me to learn how to deal with assholes from all walks of life and not take things personally. I left IU with money in the bank. Probably not realistic now, but every little bit earned will help.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@hooky my daughter is life guarding this summer where she will learn that she does like hanging out at the pool with friends but will not like being asked to do things while she's hanging out so that it is very important that she selects a first husband that will allow her to do that
Lifeguard, furniture delivery, painter, landscaper, McDonalds.
All taught me to get an education.
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All through my preteen and teen years, I did farm work. In addition to all the stuff we had going on, I had several farmers who would call me to bale hay. From around the first of June until I went back to school, I was busy 5-7 days/week and was paid in cash.
I was a little kid (strong enough, but short), so during haying season I drove the tractor that pulled the wagon that the bales got loaded on, or I was the stacker. The worst was in the barn; I was the stacker there too. Hot as fuck and no moving air at all. The bigger, stronger, older guys on the crew (many were football players) didn't cut me much slack. I had to catch them and set them quick before the next bale hit me in the head.