WORLD OF WORK

Work. What a dreaded word for many of us out there, including me.
My only job consists of a Sunday morning paper round but still, I can't say I look forward to sacrificing my Sunday lie-ins for a 7 o'clock wake up call. Having left school in May, many of my peers went out like avid explorers in pursuit of finding and securing a job that would see them earning some form of income that they could call their own. It took me a good few months to realise this and now I feel I have to get a job as well, because if most people my age are doing it, shouldn't I too?

I don't know about you but I hate relying on my parents for money these days. Asking for that fiver to buy a music magazine or that twenty for a new pair of jeans is becoming increasingly hard as the guilt at sponging off my parents accumulates slowly but surely until I'm sure that one day soon I won't be able to cope with it and I'll have to admit defeat. That defeat, as we all know, is going to find a job. When the pressure to provide for yourself reaches a certain point, you can't help but give in, especially when in society these days many teenagers feel they need to ease financial situations at home by stepping into their parents shoes and providing instead of consuming. But alas, getting that all important job is not as easy as it seems...

I know many people my age who are keen to work, keen to learn, gain experience, but they just can't seem to find that open door. I too have taken some knock backs and I'm not going to lie, those knock backs are really hard to take at this age. Many young people in work are there because they feel they need to provide for themselves or their family, and few go into that world mentally and emotionally prepared. You have to be able to rise from the knock backs, take the criticism constructively, find a new door if one closes in your face, handle the pressure and grow up quickly if you want to float and not sink. In the space of four months, I have seen many of the sixteen year olds I know grow from a child to an adult almost overnight, and that is due to the introduction of work, jobs, employment. "I can't come 'cause I have work tonight" becomes a regular saying, or "I've got work tomorrow" becomes the annoying realisation and social obligations go right out the window as work and school/college take centre stage.

Those who have jobs are enviously viewed by those who have no such luck, however those with jobs then enviously view those without jobs, and at the end of the day you just can't win. As a sixteen year old myself,  I feel like I need to get a job, yet despite having two possible positions in mind, I just can't seem to find that courage to press the apply button, hand in the CV. I want to provide for myself, I want to be independent financially but if I'm honest, I think the main reason why I am scared is the possibility of rejection. Having taken plenty of rejection during the whole fiasco that was work experience, my confidence is not quite up there and some day soon I will have to take the plunge whether I want to or not. I'll have to see what happens and take things from there. As a teenager I have heard many negative things about work, such as low pay, balancing it with college work, the long hours, mean bosses etc. and that scares me as well.
The world of work is dominated by adults and as a teenager, despite the fact you are a 'young adult', you feel like you are ten all over again and like you really don't belong. You want to run and go back to playing with doll houses or dinosaurs, back to primary school, back to that innocence and naivety, but you can't.
And so you have to grow up, look the world in the face, and tell yourself you can do it.

If you too experience that knock in confidence and self esteem when another door shuts, tell yourself that any employer would be lucky to have you, tell yourself that you are worth it, tell yourself you can go out there again and that you will find that open door. Don't let it get to you or eat away at what's left of you.
Work is not easy and  it is hard for a teenager to find their feet, but you will, we all will, and when you get that job, treat yourself to that bag, that burger, that laptop because you deserve it.

INTRODUCTION

Hello, my name is T and I've created this blog with the purpose of it being an outlet for my ramblings and observations. I am sixteen, I live in England (woo!) and throughout the last couple of years, I have learnt a lot of things about life and I know that I am still young, but I feel I have experiences worth sharing and observations that are worth rambling about. If something I write helps you, then that will make me extremely happy, and if I manage to make you smile, then I hope you keep that smile for the rest of the day.

Many of my ramblings are to do with being a teenager and what I have learnt, experienced and seen so far in my sixteen years on this fabulous planet. I'm not here to impress or be the perfect writer, I'm just here to make you think, make you feel that you're not alone, I'm here to be of help, hopefully, and I'm here to share my observations. Therefore if you happen to stumble across this little blog of mine, I hope you can take something away from it, whether it be a smile, a new viewpoint, a thought or whatever else there could possibly be.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and my first post (moan) is about the world of work.... YAY!

-T (: