East Leyden student Alyana DeLeon watched as the little girl stood still, a smile slowly appearing on her tiny round face, and urinated on the cement floor that DeLeon would have to clean.Between clean ups like these on a daily basis and dealing with rowdy kids, enjoying her job at Anna Montana Water Park in Schiller Park was the last thing on DeLeon’s  mind. Working 12-16 hours a week at a pool had initially seemed like a good idea: getting your tan, chatting with friends poolside and getting paid. Not quite. De Leon soon realized a number of problems in her work. She wasn’t able to get a break on the days she needed one most, the people around her were negative and rude, and the job, obviously, wasn’t as glamorous as she imagined. De Leon learned that working around a whole bunch of crazy running kids  and crabby co-workers wasn’t the right situation to put herself in for the future. “I never want to go back there!” she said.

Junior Kevin Vargas walked away from a summer working on air conditioners with his father learning that working countless hours outside wasn’t the right choice for him. He also learned about specialized labor: “It really made me realize that I want to go to school and specialize in something that really interests me in order to enjoy my job, which will allow me to perform much better during the workday.” Vargas took what he got out of that one dreadful summer and changed his plans for the future. Before going out and experiencing such intense physical labor, he thought that following in his father’s footsteps would be the best idea; however, after going out and actually experiencing it, it made him realize that he needs to take a different path in life.

With limited choices, teens who go to work need to be ready for the fact that their first jobs will likely be less than they imagined. But they still need to work. Doing so will help them learn what they want (and don’t want) in their work. Some might argue that taking jobs with a bad working environment will ruin their attitudes about working; however, it will teach many young adults what career to pursue later on in life and in what kind of environment they want to put themselves in. Dealing with tough working conditions will help guide many young adults in the right direction.