Autumn is the time for reflecting. School and work start again, everybody goes back to everyday life. As the leaves fall, our life becomes more complex and days fly by. I love watching out from my window following the leaves as they make their way done to the ground. In a way their path is sad. They look so glorious in the trees, all colorful during what we Finns call "ruska", the period of colorful leaves. And still all that glory leads to dirty brown leaves on the ground, a deep fall that is. This, without a doubt, makes us think about our own life.
The choices we make during autumn, affect the outcome of our whole year. During the summer, most of us have summer jobs, which offer us something new but seldom something lasting. The trickiest part of going back to school, is balancing school with work. Almost all of my friends are forced to work on the side of school, simply because of economical reasons. We all want to live on our own, something we perceive as natural in Finland. Seeing as we are already in our twenties, money from back home is all the time getting less common and the money we get from the state merely covers our rent, if even that. The question is though what is the priority then. Should school come first, or work? The ironical part is that usually work forces you to prioritize it, simply because if you miss it once, you're fired. So this feature kind of makes the choice for us, doesn't it?
Although this is a well known fact, professors refuse to see it as the reality. They emphasize that school should come first, and do not allow us to miss class. Other professors on the other hand assume that we have work experience and uses that as lecture material. So another conflict occurs.
I have found it difficult to choose what kind of job would suit me and my life situation. During this period, I've had at the most three times a week lectures, which makes it perfectly possible for me to work on the side of school. The distinguishing feature of my school though is that we have changing timetables. The timetables change at least every ten weeks, but changes can also occur during these periods of ten weeks. So what kind of job should I look for that can fit into this puzzle?
I've recently started a job as a leader of an afternoon activity club for elementary school children. Although I love the children, having a job every day between 1pm-5pm is not really working with my school. I thought it might, but it seems impossible. I find myself torn.
What's your opinion?