The High School Juggling Act: How Nabneet Kaur Navigates Life

By: Emily Bailey

With just one quick search on Google, you can find out that nearly 30% of high school students are employed and work a part time job. Probably many of your friends and peers work a job right now, including Tuscarora High School student Nabneet Kaur. 

Kaur stated that she “wanted to work since I was twelve,” but by the time she was finally of age for most part time jobs, COVID hit. “I wanted to start working as soon as I was fifteen, but then COVID happened, so I had to wait a couple of months,” said Kaur. Though Kaur also expressed how she worked with her dad through the app DoorDash for a while when she was fourteen, and how working with him taught her a lot for when she got a permanent job. 

Though Kaur talked about having three jobs up until summer of last year, and as of late has downgraded to two jobs. “One of them is Cold Stone Creamery. It’s an ice cream store. And the Morningside house of Leesburg. It’s assisted living for old people,” said Kaur. Not only does she work two jobs, but Kaur also tries her best to schedule everything acorendly.

 A normal day for Kaur insists of her waking up at seven to get ready for school, and then staying at school till four, immediately going home to briefly see her parents, going street to work right after, and because she has been waiting to go more consistently, Kaur also tries to go to the gym after work, and then she ends the day with homework before going to bed. “Because I do work seven days out of the week. And sometimes I can’t work out during the week and I’ll feel guilty, which is not how it’s supposed to be. I’m trying to get myself to not feel guilty when I do skip, but you know, the workload between school and work is a big time commitment,” Kaur said. 

Though Kaur also goes on to explain how far her commitment goes, “I have these shows. Because I do pay bills. It wasn’t forced upon me. I asked my mom if I could pay some bills so I could have a little bit more responsibility. I pay the electricity bill and the gas bill,” said Kaur. 

Kaur’s admiration for her mother’s work ethic has also played a key role in her own work ethic now as well. Before even being born yet, Kaur talks about how her father got into a car accident which caused him to become paralyzed. 

She states that this was where financial troubles started to arise for her family, “and I think that took a major toll with medical fees and bills for him to get better.” Though this is where I believe Kaur gets her industrious features from. “And that was a major deal, because my mom had just recently moved from India to come abroad. And because she obviously didn’t know English it caused her to become very stressed out,” Kaur stated, as well as, “and it caused her to have to work, double and triple shifts, and then come home and take care of my dad. But I think that’s what caused my mom to become so strong.” 

All of this translates to Kaur’s veneration by explaining that deciding to pay bills around her house was entirely her decision by wanting to help her family. “And I just want to help my family because my mom’s paid for everything my entire life. So for the past two years, I’ve been paying for everything that I buy. So if I buy food, I pay for what I eat and drink, I pay for what I do, I pay for like everything that’s related to me. And obviously the two bills,” Kaur says. 

Though as much as works for her family, and self, Kaur soon divulged about her social life and how working so much and affecting that aspect of her life. Kaur talked about how she asked friends “to give me either a week or two weeks in advance of when they want to hang out, so I can do that.” 

Though ultimately she obviously wants to be more involved with her friends, Kaur talked about how “sometimes, I just can’t do that.” Always one to look on the positive side, Kaur also expresses how most of her co-workers are “literally teenagers,” and are generally her friends, so she doesn’t feel like she is missing out on anything. Even the company of the elderly at Morningside are “nice and polite,” and are always willing to make conversation, whether telling a story or giving advice. One of the many qualities of having a high school job, Kaur thinks, is that even if they would dampen your social life, they also do “help me meet a lot of people,” Kaur said. 

Though with a social life also comes a school life. While asking if she ever gets stressed with everything Kaure responded with, “I definitely have to manage my time wisely.” While maintaining a social life may be easier, school life is not the case. During work, while being on the clock, many have the luxury of talking with co-workers and friends while working, but can’t whip out a chromebook when and wherever they please. Though as Kaur said, she definitely does manage. “I think I have a good balance about work in school. Because teachers are very supportive. They understand my financial situation,” Kaur said. 

But if we really want to hit on all aspects a high school student with a job looks like, then we must confront the meatball toll the workload may compromise. When asked how these jobs help meantally, Kaur said, “Cold Stone is definitely one of the big, happy places for me.” Though not having much to say on the topic, Kaur has already expressed how these jobs mentally guide her. She can manage her school and work ratio almost seamselly, and she can still find a happy place at one of her work places because of the people she is surrounded by. 

The goal of going to the gym after work has proven to help. “I think that’s also what’s helped my mental health a lot,” Kaur said, talking about going to the gym. These jobs also provide an outlet of giving thanks to the ones she loved by being able to provide for them in her own way. Which are all quite remarkable reasons to be working in the first place. Though Kaur has already proven what a remarkable person she is already, so I don’t find it hard to believe in the first place. 

Kaur also talks about her future goals, career wise, from long to short. Some short time goals included wanting to take on a serving job, at a really good restaurant, when she turns eighteen, and to also possibly become a bartender. Though long term goals for her career are a bit more ambitious. “I think I want to be a doctor. I definitely like once again like after handling people at Morningside I do think that’s such a field that I would like to go in. I don’t know if I’m mentally prepared for studying for so long. I’m trying to wrap my head around that. But I do also want to be a crime scene investigator because I think that’d be fun. I want to travel the world, too,” Kaur said. These jobs also have more story behind them than just helping her family, these jobs also help provide the money she needs to make her long term career goals a possibility. “I do think I will have to pay for most of my college, and so that’s, like, a really big burden,” said Kaur. 

With everything Kaur has worked for she strongly believes that more high schoolers should get jobs. “I think they should definitely get jobs just because it’s a learning experience. And I feel like it helps us, especially in learning how to deal with angry people,” said Kaur. 

Though with learning experience, getting a part time job while in high school has proven to have many benefits. From helping out financially to loved ones, getting to meet more people, learning time management skills for both school work and work work, the list goes on and on. Nabneet Kaur should be an inspiration to all for her hard work and dedication, and hopefully after reading this, she is.