| Product: |
Jobs whilst you are a student |
| Date: |
27/07/01 (132 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Tutoring pays well, respected occupation
Disadvantages: hazardous clientele
I write some opinions on here that sometimes exagerate facts to make a point and sometimes push the limits of my very selective memory but this one is entirely true, although I can't blame you if you chose not to believe me.
I was just a small town midwestern (USA) 17 year old kid when I first set foot on campus twelve years ago. Just for the record I am the most unsicilian person around, my genes hail from the North coast of Europe for the most part and I don't come off as very roman at all. Geepers, I wax romantic about those pure innocent days when my life was all about learning and open to all sorts of new things. I was trying to be a rock star and student and was subject to all sorts of whims and impulses. I wanted to be in both the Student Environmental coalition and the Young Republicans. I had my thick full head of hair (now leaving me strand by strand in the bathtub drain on a daily basis) and I was skinny, I was really skinny and hadn't defaced my whole body with tattoos. I was a far different lad than the person I am today. man, it is hard not to think about what I have done right and wrong since then, to try to analyze all the coulda beens and shouldabeens. Not that I haven't been happy, but that first quarter at the University was a big fork in the road of life and I still have to think about the choices that I made and what I could have done different. Young, naive, sheltered andf inexperienced was really a good description of me.
Ok, enough background let me get to the coolest student job of all time.
History was my thing, I was 6th out of 17,000 people who took the senior history exam in my state and it won me a partial scholarship. I knew my history. Unfortunately back then I was also accustomed to citing history to support my venemous spewing of racial hate and discord. I never really liked history for the sake of thinking it was neat how the Egyptians had so many far-out gods or how the mayans bu
ilt such fascinating things, sadly my passion of history was just adding pieces, text by text, book by book, into this gigantic proof or study on the rise of the europeans. History wasd just sort of my justification of bigotry and I was the apt pupil so to speak. I wish I could have just liked history because my uncle was a nut who liked to dress up like a Confedrate soldier and go to living history camps or because my dad had got me interested in the history of railroads or something. I feel bad about the person that I had been, but i was a top notch history student on the account of it, that is what the important point is here.
I got my first exam back in my American History class. The prof had made the score 115% as to "be fair about curving the other scores". The three very conspicious guys who sat behind me were cursinga nd swearing and pretty obnoxious about their scores. I did not like these guys. They were big and mean and very arrogant. They also sat together in the ROTC class that I was in.
the one guy, and his name really was Tony, kicks me in the back (we were in like a tiered auditorium) and I turn around. "Whatchu git", he asked and I show him my score. "You think you know history or sumthin? You smart or somethin? You were the first person done in here", I was sort of intimidated. "I do Ok in this subject", I answered sheepishly.
"Well I needs a tutor" he said flopping his test over for me to see his 60.
The TA is still handing out the tests while the prof is dealing with one of the so called "non traditional students" (old people who go back to school) who always seem to waste so much of their time. So I wasn't making a disruption when I turned around and started to explain, "what you need to do is go over to U Hall and they have an office on the first floor where you can sign up for free help and these will pay someone to work with you"
"No you &#*^$", he says all annoyed, "Them &*%@*%%@$ won't help anybody for #@^!"
"Yes they will it is their job", I tell him.
Tony takes a long hard look at me and studies my clothes, "You shoes are cheap", he tells me rather matter of factly, "You ain't got much money do you"
This rather annoyed me as they were decent shoes, I certainly wasn't ashamed of them, but yes they were not exactly top shelf. I had never heard that kind of meaness about a trivial matter at college.
"No", I answered, I was hurt and felt so small and bad, here I was at college and was being bullied by someone I was so much smarter than just because he had money. It was like the last place I should of had to shrink back, a freshman History class where I was the star.
"Hey man, I ain't rippin on ya or nunthin, I am just saying I betcha could use some bread is all, like I wouldn't expect a rich kidda want ta make some bread by helping me"
"I guess I can help you", I said , still confused by all of it.
"ok, you come eat with us after class"
After class we walked to their car. It was a great big obnoxious Lincoln. I had no car and these guys had a new Lincoln while everyone elses on campus had crappy little Datsuns or Ford Escorts. They just started driving We stopped at a rather fancy restaurant, like the kind I can barely tolerate paying for now on a special occasion. I was already humiliated by the comment about my shoes and resolved to keep my pride and pay my fair share
So we sit at this restaurant and just look at each other. Finally while we are waiting for our food he asks me, "So you gonna help me or what?"
"I can help you make study lists and stuff, I can pretty well guess what will be on a test before we get tested"
Tony just shakes his head, "listen, I got my mudda, blesser h
eart. She wants me to get some college. My father, he don't got eighth grade but he's got one of the biggest construction companies in X (I won't say the state). But my mom is not well she got that ovarian cancer stuff and all she wants is to see me go to college"
For being able to name all the squad leaders in the 7th calvary at Custers Last Stand and recite long passage from the Art of War, I wasn't particularily perceptive.
"Now all I am tying to get is a general studies degree it ain't like I am trying to be a doctor or an engineer and get it without really knowin it, right?"
A lightbulb suddenly came on in my head and ironically the whole student handbook aboout academic honesty, and then my checkbook came to mind.
"I could manage to take all four of our tests in the amount of time", I admitted, thinking about the multiple choice exams.
"No, just two, these bozos gots to find their own tutors" Tony replied.
Things got bizarre from that moment on. They took me shopping for starters and I ended up with odd pastel shirts and loud floral ties and alligator loafers (I did not wear them to the environmental club) I got to see for the first time people actually carrying around guns for no apparent reason. They took me everywhere and proudly announced me as "Tony's Tutor". I would go home on weekends and my parents were puzzled, my dad asked my mom, "wasn't our son Dutch/german before he went to school?". I would go to our Lutheran church where they still had German Mass like I walked off the set of the Sopranos. It had to be comical. But I had money, they gave me lots of money for my "help". I must have been a real jackass, a dutch boy playing Wiseguy.
The best times I had during that quarter was when the three of them (they lived together) would each have their "tutor" come over(by this time we were writing their
papers, doing all their homework and legitimately trying to prep them for tests that we could not take for them)Then they would have us watch jeopardy and make bets over whose tutor was the smartest or would do the best. They were always trying to figure out who had the smartest tutor.
My great job ended abruptly. I went to the same classes as them for two quarters and then I decided I wanted to take the business curriculum why they preferred general studies which they found less boring...in the classes that they took attendance and had to be there. So I was under pressue to alter my goals for short term gain and I couldn't do it. At that time my nation called on me to stop tyranny in Kuwait and afetr the war I never made it back to college (if you doubt this, my reason for being so intelligent is that i watch a lot of TV). I will never forget this job, my best student job, heck it was the best job of all I ever had. I did see recently that my employer did get put away in a big RICO affair where he was from.
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