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| Jason Jewell Class of 2017 |
By Jason Jewell, Class of 2017
We spend most of our lives working or learning skills so that we can work at a later date. Our education system is built around getting jobs in the future. As Americans, a majority of us wake up 5 days a week for jobs we do not like, simply because “it pays the bills” as we like to tell ourselves. I’m young in the grand scheme of things there is no doubt about that, it’s something that is refreshing. It takes time and a bit of hard-headedness to learn some of these lessons but I hope they stick with me. I am first learning to let the materialism go. The second lesson is that saying no is not failure. These are two key lessons I am learning each day, some days are better than others.
As I sit in my third year of college, for the first time I feel like I am doing things right. I spent my first two years of college working, convincing myself that I needed to work to pay the bills. The money I made helped to pay the bills but truthfully it went more towards my own materialism than it did to the bills. At the beginning of the semester I had enough money to pay my bills for the year, if I budgeted and didn’t waste money on things I didn’t need. Working made paying for things a lot easier, I was able to buy most of the things that I wanted. There was still one thing I didn’t have enough money to buy, that was my own time. I was working 30 hours a week, so that I could waste enough money to still be broke at the end of every pay period.
I was struggle at the end of every pay period while also not having the time to enjoy myself and the money I was earning. I had spent so long being a “yes man”, I wanted to be the person that everyone counted on. I was able to do this because I never really took time for me, I constantly pushed harder, taking on more work, and stretching myself thin. I had convinced myself for so long, that there is no such thing as too much, or that there is always more time if you want to make it. Any offer I had, I would take on, eventually taking on more than I could handle. I was overwhelmed, my grades were falling, my commitments were so vast that I did less and less to actually help the organizations I was a part of. I was working constantly but I was never happy or satisfied. I was everywhere, making a difference nowhere.
It took falling on my face to realize that I had to make a change, I was not only hurting myself and my reputation but also the organizations I wanted to help. I was able to figure things out financially and academically because I had to make choices and sacrifices. Two months into the semester, I am not working; I am forcing myself to budget, focus on my schoolwork and the select number of organizations I am in. I love the work that I do. My days are still long and some days still drain me but I am able to enjoy the things I am doing because I also have time to relax. I have the time to go out on nightly runs, time to get eight hours of sleep a night, and to generally take care of myself. I spent so long pressuring myself to do more and to never pass up on an opportunity but I was losing out on opportunities that I never even saw.
There is no question that I don’t have as much money as I did before, but the extra money I once had didn’t bring happiness. I gave up a little bit of money for a lot of time and it’s honestly the best trade I could have made. A trade I may not always have the privilege of taking but one that I hope I always take anytime I am presented with it.
McConnell Scholar Jason Jewell, of Louisville, Ky., is a junior at the University of Louisville. He is studying political science and economics.