The world keeps evolving in many ways, working back then was mostly done by a whole family in their farm land or by the bread winner of a home or by a young man who have just finished learning a trade or a skill. It was rare to find ladies, students and even housewives working for pay, but that has changed today.
Almost everyone is working to make wealth and live a better life with their family and that includes those still schooling. Sometime ago, I only see these working students in movies and thought that Nigerians don't find it okay to work while studying but now, it's like every student have got something doing alongside their studies.
What is my thought on working while studying? This post was inspired by a friend of mine who is in this category.
Image designed here
I never got to work while studying except I'll count earning on Hive as my work back then but it was obvious I was having fun spending time on Hive to consider it a work and the fact that I could keep it aside to get done with what's most important at some point in my studies makes it less of a work to me.
But I have a friend who has to wake up early to go to the restaurant where she works after school so she could join in making preparations of the meals to be served for that day before she rushes off to school. How she keeps to time and still do well enough in her studies made me wonder if the job has a lot to do with boosting her brains and personality lol.
From my studies of friends who work while schooling, I've come to learn that there are Perks that I think are worth having so there's nothing wrong in wiring while schooling. The main reason students work is to have more to cater for their school expenses and this is could be because their guardians don't have enough to spend on them.
Some Perks from working as students.
The major one would be earning extra money for school and living expenses, my friend rarely calls home for money since she gets paid and doesn't want to burden her parents too much for what she has already.
The experience students get from working different jobs whether part-time or using a skill of theirs, all that experience would help them in their career jobs especially when looking for full time jobs after graduation.
They seem to have good sense of purpose, develop their skills and have the real world experiences just by working while studying. My friend thinks a lot more faster and smarter than her mates because she seem to know more from her experiences as a worker and not just a student.
There are so many Perks to working as a student but the most important of them that I admire is the personal growth it gives to these students, they are able to improve on themselves more and not just focusing on just studying which some do and may not even get much from it.
I'm not advising every student must work while studying but if the situation calls for that, it's all for the good if they would manage both wisely.
The challenges of working as students.
The ones who are never good with time management would have to learn it as it is going to be very important in helping them with their work and studies so they don't lose out on one and the most important, which is their studies.
I just shared that my friend had to wake up early for work before school and goes back to work after school, she had it all planned and still find time to study. All I could see in that is the stress she has to go through with little or no rest.
Having to be at school or at work also reduce the social life as she finds it hard to give up time for pleasures since she has to meet up with deadlines and still work to earn her pay.
Even when others are doing very well with their studies and try to talk her out of working, she knows she needs the money and wouldn't want to be a liability than she already is, she musters self-motivation and willpower to continue and somehow, her grades are even better than those who don't work.
My Final Thoughts
While there are the Perks and challenges every working student will have to face including the ones I didn't mention, there is always a way much easier to overcome the challenges and some of them is "Not being too hard on oneself, giving realistic deadlines, having friends around to have some fun sometimes, studying much earlier and not wait till exam periods".
All that is to keep one's mental and physical health in check which is much more important for after graduation. Do share your thoughts about working students in the comment section.
