Inspiration of a teenager

In my teens I worked many part time jobs. All of us did. Nowadays, we see fewer teens working such jobs, particularly in the summer. To me this portends long term consequences. Why? Because those part-time jobs were an inspiration. How? They inspired me to study hard and find better employment as an adult. They helped me grow up.

This hit home hard decades ago, when as a college freshman I got work at Allen-Bradley, a local electronics company in Milwaukee. Sitting next to me at a heat-press to make resistors was the dad of one of my neighborhood friends. We made the same wage, about $2.70/hr*, a fortune for me, a living wage for him. I knew this made him uncomfortable, and me too. Here I was doing exactly the same thing on a job that took only a few days to learn. For me, it was study money; for him it was the last stop in personal advancement.

Inspiration comes in diverse forms. Sometimes in life, inspiration comes from discovering where you don’t want to be.

*About triple minimum wage at the time. I have always been grateful to Allen-Bradley for hiring hundreds of college students at a decent wage. It made college possible for many of us.

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