The act of working allows a human to serve a greater purpose than focusing on himself.
You serve strangers you otherwise wouldn’t meet at a McDonalds’ cash register
In our personal capacity, we mainly care for ourselves and our family, except through volunteer activities.
By design, work forces us to think of the needs and wants of others. Servers must consider the diner’s preferences over their own. If you’re rude, angry, or lazy, customers won’t return, and you will likely be fired (unless you work in a monopolized government service – think TSA or the Secretary of State).
The reason why adults push career decisions on kids is for them to find their sweet spot: where they thrive and excel using their skills and talents.
But first, most kids must work whatever jobs they can get– lifeguarding, serving, or lawn care – to learn how to work.
Fewer teenagers ages 16-19 are taking (paid) summer jobs, according to the Pew Research Center’s analysis.
This is worrisome because those kids avoid the struggle and happiness achieved through working long hours, profusely sweating while searing a patty on a 100-degree grill for strangers, or weed eating until the screaming engine sounds normal.
These jobs force you to put others before yourself and bear consequences for your actions.
Your job and customers don’t care if you prefer to sleep in, and if you do frequently, you’ll be fired. If you don’t properly care for animals on a farm, they could be slaughtered by a coyote or a snake.
Jobs for highschoolers are usually low-skill and low wage, but that doesn’t equate to nonessential. All jobs that exist are essential, or else an employer wouldn’t bankroll.
These jobs teach the skill of working, how to deal with difficult people (customers and employers), prepare you for future jobs, and push you down the road to money management, a skill that too few in America understand.
It’s hard to understand as a kid– I remember complaining about working similar jobs– but there’s a reason why adults reign over their children.
You only see a point-by-point path in hindsight, when your story seems less discombobulated.
Jobs that feel inferior are the building block to next career steps through letters of recommendation from someone who can speak to your work ethic and personality instead of a family friend who’s only met you once.