Working For A Living

The events surrounding the release of my book weren’t the only big happenings around the Wells house last week. In fact, we had a couple more reasons to celebrate: both D and J found summer jobs! This development could’ve been some kind of miracle: I’ve read that this summer is supposed to be one of the worst summers ever for teenaged job-seekers.

Thankfully, the rate of employment for teens in my house is booming.

D got a full-time job at Jim’s company. The company has a program specifically for the student-aged offspring of employees. The program has been on hiatus for the past couple of years, so we hear (Jim has been there a little more than a year), but they have brought it back this summer. The company has several locations in the Chicagoland area (all pretty far from our house except for Jim’s location) and we were concerned about D possibly getting placed in a position that would really strain our vehicle situation (two cars, four working individuals), especially since Jim’s location only had three teen positions open, and one was under him: which meant that D was only eligible for two positions there. Well, we lucked out and D was selected for a position where Jim works, in a different department, starting every day at the same time as Jim and finishing only an hour earlier. This will be great: they will ride in together each day and, on nice summer days, Jim will ride his bike home so D can leave as soon as he’s off the clock. The money D will make this summer will not only take care of the portion of his tuition he is responsible for paying in cash by August, but will also increase his savings towards a new (to him) car, which he hopes to get in the next year or so. (He really, really misses his old car!)

J got a part-time job as a warehouse guy for an internet-based company. He is really, really excited about it. Ever since he started thinking about getting a job, he has wanted to work in a warehouse, both for the physicality of the work and also because he’s not crazy about the idea of working in a customer service position. An added bonus: the job is about five minutes from our house and I will be able to drop him off, go to my own job on the days when I work, and then pick him up on the way home! J is thrilled to have something solid for the summer and is looking forward to impressing his new employer.

He’s excited about something else, too. I’ll let you figure it out:

A 16yo boy who has his driver’s license + his first steady job = ???