What’s Done is Done, What’s Not is Time That’s Thrown Away

I’ve been working since I was 13 years old in my families businesses. Throughout my time working I have met, worked with, and many times had to deal with a broad assortment of individuals. Some of them young, some of them older. There is a vast distinction between an employee that is older versus an employee that is younger. Older employees value their position in the work place, respect the rules of the company, and have purpose in being there. Younger employees often have the job as an extra curricular activity that provides a little spending cash.

I worked out in a nicer part of Oregon in my last job. Our low paid hourly employees were a collection between the high curriculum private Catholic high school neighboring us, and the low income apartment complexes hidden behind trees from the “higher” community. This part of the tale isn’t the tragedy. I now work in a part of town with far lower income demographics. Looking out my restaurants window week by week you see police cars and ambulances seemingly multiplying, drug deals going on at the corner of the local porn store, that one bum that wears the same clothes every day but somehow can afford his three Starbucks 16oz coffees a day. My coworkers, though many of them dear to my heart, are a prime example of the destruction of our society.

Subject A: 38 years old with a 4 year degree in English. Works as a cook under 40 hours a week making $10/hr, takes Paxel anti depressant pills and has no desire to move past this.

Subject B: 26 year old with a mindset of a 17 year old that didn’t finish high school, has no intention of continuing school. Makes $9/hr

These are the two worst examples in my establishment. What has come of America to where we have grown men working in restaurants for $9/hr? What are we doing to correct these issues? Is there a plan? When will we receive our long needed salvation from incompetency?

Every day I see kids leaving my high school with no intention of going to class. Every year I look at the senior class of my school, approximately half of what the freshman class is. Week by week I go to work and see the fruits of our society. But what to do? Oh what to do?

Recently in my school I’ve seen some of the affects of Obama’s plan unfolding. Now if a student misses 10 days of school, excused or not excused, they receive a court date in which a circuit judge can determine either a fine or punishment. This is exactly what I like to see. Most see this as a huge fault in the American system, think it’s an infringement of our freedom and a royal pain in the ass but when the selfish glasses are taken off and we really look at the situation we see that what we’re doing is training our youth to go to school. Or rather, re-training. But taking in perspective America’s education system compared to that of the EU or other countries we can obviously see our inferiority. America is in drastic need of change. We have to begin to value our education more. We have to push to give ourselves the edge in order to succeed on this planet.

One thing that America lacks from other countries is government provided college. I have a dual citizenship in Italy and if I were to move there and live for a set amount of time I could receive free education from the Italian council.

I’m 17 years old, and of course I know everything in the world already. No one can dare tell me I’m wrong, and I am obsessed with instant gratification. I want things to be the way I want them, and if there’s a rule I don’t agree with, even if it is justified I’ll break it. But this issue that America has is more than just me. It’s more than anything  I can change or control. All I can do is pour my heart out about it and hope that there’s somebody out there somewhere that’s listening. These words from a young persons perspective should be an encouraging thing to people. I tell one of my frequent customers that even though he’s 58 years old it is never too late to follow his hearts ambitions. It’s never too late to learn something new. It’s never too late to make a change. Someone I admire once told me that this life isn’t a practice run, it’s the only shot we’ve got, so make with it what I want but to do him a favor and not throw it away.