Looking Ahead

Samantha Strub

(July, 2011) It seems like ever since spring break Mount students couldn’t wait for summer to come and the semester to be over. Now that summer is here we can finally relax and enjoy some time off school and have good times with friends and family. For many people that means concerts and long days at the beach. However, for broke college students like me summer days are filled with working. There is always some time to cool off and relax, but most of the time I’m working to pay all the bills that appear out of nowhere.

I always seem to get restless over the summer months, usually within a month of starting my job. I’m ready to go back to school even though that means constant studying again. Why wouldn’t I enjoy my careless summer nights you ask? Well, simply because I am unable to have barefoot, blue-jean nights with my friends all summer long. I have to work a 9-5 job in order to pay the tuition that takes up all my money. It’s harder to do things when you’re working or broke all the time. Many people have the luxury to lie out and tan all summer. In some cases I feel bad for those people because they never look ahead and plan for what’s next, but I’m still somewhat jealous of that lifestyle as well.

This restlessness could come from the fact that although my job pays well it’s not something that I want to be doing for the rest of my life. Most people tell me that is why I have these "stay in college jobs" as my mom calls them. My receptionist job has this title in my family because it shows me how important a college education is. It teaches me that I do not want to be doing receptionist work like filing, mailings, mail, running errands, posting tickets, and calling bad debt for the rest of my life. Going to college will give me the opportunity to do something in my life that I will love and will enjoy getting up and going to in the morning.

Having to work just for the money becomes draining, and it makes me realize why I always become restless during the summer; I’m not doing something that I love to do. But my receptionist job does cause me to look ahead. It motivates me to continue working hard at my studies in order to eventually be able to enjoy a career.

At the Mount on the other hand, even though I become exhausted from being up late doing homework and all the other activities and responsibilities I have, I’m doing something that I love. Call me a nerd, but I enjoy going to most of my classes--the homework not so much, but that is part of learning. I love always being busy, going from class, to work, to field hockey. I also ride, give campus tours as a Mount Ambassador, work out, hang with friends, and do homework. Sometimes I wonder how I have time to even eat and sleep, but we all know that sleep is the thing that seems to come last. For some reason I love that always-going lifestyle.

Sure, being busy becomes draining, but it’s a different kind of draining than a summer job. It is satisfying and fulfilling. It makes you feel excited and ready to get up and tackle another day; when I’m working in order to get money to pay for school the days seem to drag on in an endless circle. That cycle creates the feeling of restlessness that I experience every summer. That feeling causes me to look forward, not only to the short-term questions like where I’m going to be living next fall and when I can buy my books, but also to where I want to begin my career of an English Teacher. Now that I have realized that I want to spend my life sharing my love of literature to the world by teaching children. I have to figure out what grade I want to teach I have to figure out whether I want to work out East or in the Midwest, close to my hometown. Along with other questions, what kind of place will I have, and when will I be able to afford to have horses again?

This may be called dreaming too high, but I have always been told that I’m capable of doing whatever I want to do with my life. This has caused me to constantly look forward and to plan what comes next. Have you done that lately?

Read past editions of Samantha Strub's Four Years at the Mount