This summer has been a different summer than any other for me. Not because of the exotic places I’ve traveled too or the fantabulous camps I’ve enjoyed. No, this summer, for the first time in my life, I have a steady job.

Now, for most teens a summer job is nothing new or exciting. But when it’s your first, it’s confusing and a does carry a certain mystique. Paychecks and supervisors are one thing but what about when your job itself is a little bit out of the ordinary? In my city, teens can use an organization that finds and assigns jobs. This made finding my job a lot easier but it also meant I didn’t get to choose what I would devote most of my summer too. So I’ve spent the last six weeks… sailing! I’m essentially an assistant to the staff. This program gives kids from many different walks of life a chance to learn a skill that really can’t be learned at too many camps. Now running a camp for kids is always difficult and somewhat hectic but when dozen of little kids are learning to maneuver and rig and unrig and furl and tack and jibe and head up and bear off and dock and NOT capsize and… well, you get the idea. Naturally, the dock and the water can get a little crazy. Luckily, my job site has tons of staff.

So much in fact, that I’ve spent most of this summer getting paid for getting a tan (And for going on coffee runs, which is actually pretty exciting when it’s by motorboat and gets complicated when you’re ordering eight different coffees… but that’s another story). It feels weird complaining about my lack of work but it seems to be the perpetual state of many teens this summer. The truth of the matter is that many “summer jobs” which traditionally have gone to teens are going to older, more qualified, individuals. The number of teens who want jobs exceeds the number of jobs that are actually available. Now where I live, it’s probably easier to get a summer job as a teen than as an adult. But whether or not that job will actually be productive or helpful to the employer- and if it will even keep you occupied for twenty hours a week, remains to be seen. Either way, the ins and outs of a girl’s first job are filled with ups and downs, humor and painfully early mornings (in fact the early nature of this post is due to that job). And in my own case, my first job was nothing like I imagined it. I, for one, expected to have actual… work to do. And I didn’t expect that I would ever work so closely with ducks. I thought that I would be held to really really high standard of dedication by my supervisors. Turns out all that was needed to win them over was some early morning caffeine. So, how about you? Your dream job? Hilarity from your first job (or second job- I’m not picky)? Can you even find a job? And is that job actually work… or are you getting paid to sunbathe as I am?