Skip to main content

The Unfortunate Importance of Money

Money is important. Well, duh. But it's not until you get to be eighteen and your parents threaten to kick you out/disown you/stop paying for college that you realize how EXTREMELY important money is.

The parental threat(s) came with the stipulation that said threats would not become a reality if I got a job. And believe me, Mom and Dad, there is nothing I'd like more to do. Because then I could rent a cheap apartment for $250-400 a month, survive on ramen noodles and cereal, not pay campus housing fees, AND stay there for the summer (to avoid being a burden on my poor unfortunate white middle-class parents).

The main problem with me getting a job right now is that EVERY college student home for the summer is trying to get a job. And with me only being available for about 4 weeks out of the entire summer--a spread-out 4 weeks at that--my chances of being hired over kids stuck at home for the whole 2 to 2 1/2 months are slim.

Still, I have options. The site I write for has begun to offer up-front payments ($10 and higher) for book reviews. I can volunteer at the library or the SPCA, which gives me work experience if not money. I can write for local papers and submit to contests. And as a musician, I have the options of playing at weddings and giving music lessons. And if I'm tossed out the door to fend for my own broke ass, I'll take my cello and play on street corners for money. Kidding. I hope...

Comments

  1. Hey, no shame in playing on the street corners for money. I think that your parents understand the limits on your time, so maybe they'll forgive you. I think what it comes down to is wanting you to not sit around the house for 4 weeks, so maybe volunteering is a good idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe you're right about the not-sitting-around-on-my-butt part. But as for the other part, they definitely want me to earn some money. I am more serious about applying for a job when I return to school, but for now, I am going to shop out my babysitting, carwashing, lawnmowing, and cello-playing services. On street corners if necessary. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel your pain =( It's tough to find a job during the summer.

    Learning the EXTREME importance of money at eighteen is a good thing tho'. There are lots of people who don't learn that lesson until they're thirty. Then it's too late and the smart eighteen year-olds have already snagged the best corners to play their cellos on.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hahaha! I'm already scouting out corner space. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. House sitting and pet sitting! Easy cash :) Also, for the school year you should check out Notehall.com. You get paid to upload your class notes and make study guides for each test. I did it for one class last semester and it was such easy money. You get paid a flat rate for the semester plus you get commission every time someone buys your notes or study guides. And since you're getting money for something you should already be doing, you still have time for a "real" job if you want one. You would be great for it since you are smart and a good student; you should totally check it out. Good luck not getting kicked out! :P

    P.S. We need to get together soon!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Notehall.com??? Seriously??? THAT IS BRILLIANT.

    Luckily I write for a website already, and get $15 per article. But it has to go through a pretty long approval process and I haven't written anything recently. Does one apply to Notehall?

    Also, who do you know who needs someone to house sit/pet sit? Call me!! :DD

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments make me happy, so leave lots! :) I will usually reply to each one, so click Notify Me to read my replies.

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hemlock Grove, ep. 1 and 2

Hello! I'm back from my blogging hiatus. I've been on a horror kick lately, and most recently, I watched the first two episodes of Netflix's Hemlock Grove. I'm a bit late to this series, but for what it's worth, here's my review. I have some...issues.  Pacing It's based on a novel, and you can tell. Once the show introduces something that might be interesting or lead to tension and conflict, it snatches it away like a precious plot-gem that it doesn't want you to see. There is way too much exposition and filler. The plot hangs together pretty well, but not much really happens. Case in point, it should not have taken two whole episodes to find out Main Character is a werewolf. Especially since everyone seems clued into this fact and accepts it as truth -- except the viewers. Then suddenly Rich Boy is asking if he can watch the transformation like it's understood that Poor Kid Main Character is a werewolf. No warning, no lead-up, nothing.

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faïza Guène, a YA Book By A Young Author

Review time! Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow is a young adult novel by a young adult, so I was very interested to read it. There's also a #MuslimShelfSpace tag going around, and this review is a nod to that. The idea is that there's been a lot of stereotypes and anti-Muslim sentiment spread around, so buying and boosting books about and by Muslims can help educate people and break down harmful stereotypes.  The author is French with an Algerian background, and  Guène  wrote Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow when she was in her late teens. Although the novel is not autobiographical, she shares many things with its main character. Doria, like her creator, is the child of immigrants and lives in poor suburban housing projects.   Guène   wrote that she realized girls like herself weren't really represented in books, and felt that Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow was a way to tell the stories of people in the suburbs who are ignored by the elites of French literature. Plot: Life Sucks, Until It Doesn

King Arthur Sucks.

I wrote a review of The Greenstone Grail by Amanda Hemingway , in which I applauded the book for being the first Arthurian adaptation I had read that I didn't despise. I mean, how could I? Despite the book's other problems, it had aliens riding motherfucking dragons!!! Aliens! Dragons! Parallel universes!  After reading my review, one of my friends asked me why I hate Arthurian legend so much.  Well.  Perhaps one of the reasons I liked The Greenstone Grail 's take on the Holy Grail myth was because it was so different.  Most Arthurian adaptations fall along the same lines. It's the same damn story told almost the same damn way all the time. But  The Greenstone Grail took place in modern times, borrowing from the Holy Grail and Arthurian myths without making it so central to the plot that there was no room for other stuff like imagination.  Say whatever else you want about this book ( and believe me, I did ), it had imagination. Its main character can dimension-