Workings students at BHS

Baldwin City Market cashier Caitlin Countryman is hard at work checking out customers right after school.

Isabel Tiller

Baldwin City Market cashier Caitlin Countryman is hard at work checking out customers right after school.

As a growing high school student, earning a driver’s license and having a car is both exciting, yet normal for students at BHS. Yet, with driving a car comes the given task of buying gasoline. Money does not grow on trees, and students such as sophomores Caitlin Countryman and Katelyn Hockey know the struggle of getting a job to earn money to pay for things such as gas.

“I work at the Baldwin City Market as a cashier,” Countryman said. “I’ve been working there for three months now and work both during the school week and weekends.”

While Countryman works at the local grocery store, Hockey does something completely different.

“Ever since this past August, I’ve been working at Baldwin Hilltop Animal Center,” Hockey said. “I work during the week and on the weekends caring for the animals and doing computer work.”

Though it may sound easy, balancing a job, school and even sports can be taxing and difficult.

“It’s definitely not stress free or easy. I get stressed out and tired from time to time,” Countryman said. “I try to get ahead on school work at school. I do homework on the way to soccer practice and back home as well, but there are still many sleepless nights”

However, being a working student has its benefits, especially for Kaela Roberts, a sophomore who gives guitar lessons to younger children.

“Working with kids helps me develop certain skills, such as patience,” Roberts said. “I also get to play the guitar for two hours, which I love to do. I even learn a thing or two from the kids.”

Not only is being a working student beneficial for life lessons, but it helps for the future as well.

“It’s helped me with my future career,” Hockey said. “I’ve loved animals since I was a little girl, and being able to work with them every day helps out my choice for a career.”
Working students at BHS are abundant, and each person balances work, school, and even sports in their own way. Working can be difficult or hard sometimes, but it does have its rewards in the end, whether it is money for gas or life lessons learned.