By: Zachary Dearth

As many teenagers start to turn 16, the idea of being an adult comes to their mind and parents see this new age as a time to get a job and start paying for essentials. Many kids work at food places such as Panera, Taco Bell, Subway, etc. while others work at retail stores like Kohls, Macy’s, Forever 21, etc. This concept of young adults working and paying for items has in some ways gone obsolete, but now that concept is back and it’s making the job industry very sophisticated.

Starting in the family business, senior Lily Stephens has been working since she was 14 but now she works at Dickey’s Barbecue Pit to pay for the many necessities that she needs such as her car insurance. “I hate working while in school, because I never have time to hang out with my friends or do homework,” said Stephens. “All I do is go to school, then practice, then work.” Stephens is also graduating early so she won’t have school anymore after first semester and she will have more time to work and see friends instead of her weeks being so stressed and rushed.

Senior Wyatt Abbott also works while he’s in school, but he has a different view on it because since he only works one day a week it wasn’t very hard for him. His decision to work only one day a week is because marching band took up most of his schedule and he was too busy to work more days. “Working while schooling wasn’t super stressful, but the only hard part was being able to balance school work and keeping up my grades while having to work,” said Abbott. “I mainly worked on Sundays and I usually have competitions on Saturday, so I didn’t have the weekend to do stuff but I would have the week to catch up.” Abbott recently quit his job due to the fact that his work wasn’t treating him very fairly because they never gave him hours when he really needed them.

Other than seniors just working while in school, many juniors work also. Junior Lauren Kim works at Fox Run in Novi, and she makes sure to lower the stress of working while schooling by using time management to keep herself productive. “Working while in school can be stressful at times, but if you use time management than it’s easy to make time to do other things than just go to work and school.” said Kim. “Time management makes a huge difference when working.” Kim works 3-4 days a week, which isn’t bad for a high schooler, and she says she doesn’t always enjoy working but then again she doesn’t hate it either.

For all of the young adults working while in school, most of them would rather not do it but sometimes they have to in order to pay for certain expenses that they have. More and more, kids are starting to work which gives employers more kids to work with.