What am I doing for the summer?
Working. In Madison.
Allow me to be a bit more specific and to embellish on my sarcasm. I have been asked, what seems a thousand times, by my parents (they’re divorced and don’t communicate with each other well, and never did, when they were married), other relatives, and friends.
The lease I signed last year for my current apartment last from 8/15/2004 (when we moved in August) until 8/14/2005. So, after school ended. I would have to pay rent for an additional three months. Going home and working in Sheboygan made very little sense.
So I decided to stay here. That decision was easy. And there was this whole problem of rent for three months.
Finding a summer job while trying to catch up on your classes is difficult, much less trying to coach students prior to the state tournament and national qualifiers at the same time. Complicating this, is the very nature of Madison. Everyone wants a job. Or two or three, if they can find them. Don’t misunderstand my characterization, many employers are hiring in Madison, but only for limited positions creating increased competition over those limited positions.
To meet my need of “get cash fast,” I considered my full range of options of what to do for the summer. The first thing that always comes to mind is working at a debate camp again. But I knew that this was more than likely not going to happen, especially when I think I judged more rounds at CFL Nationals than I did on the National Circuit all this year. (It didn’t help that I was not a part of the majority of Tim and Brian’s travels this year.) Then I considered working at other camps, but that wasn’t overtly appealing. One thing Michelle suggest was, but I was a bit lax on applying asap. For a brief period I considered applying to work for the Southwestern Company Sales internship. But the more I thought about it, the shadier the prospect became. (and I could not find a single bit of good press on the net, which is usually a warning sign.)
And then Scheffler came up with a great suggestion: apply with a company for which I had previously worked. In other words: Shopko.
For those of you not from Wisconsin, Shopko is Green Bay based retail chain that competes with Target and K-Mart for the best in your “pleasant, but not always cheap” shopping experience (as opposed to the evil incarnate known as Wal-Mart).
I got hired easily, and started working immediately after school ended. Jumping from Academia to the working world is always hard. But this year’s jump became especially hard when it totally destroyed my LSAT Prep plan. I have since pushed the test back to October.
And because one job wasn’t enough, and the prospect of spending the entire summer in Madison allowed me to be available for internships I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to attain. After seeing a notice for interns needed for Assembly Democrats for the upcoming State Budget discussions, I quickly applied and have been accepted. And so, I’m working my second internship in the Office of State Representative Vruwink. I would have much preferred to work for someone from my home town (lowered learning curve), but I’ll do the best with what I can get, right?
So that’s what I’m doing. Working like a Dog, and sweating like one too. (We have no AC… and MAN! did it suck today.)
