No person wants responsibility.
We all want to be free of everything so that we would not have to worry about anything at all… right?
I believed when I was younger at around the age of 13-14 that I would never have to have to worry about my own things and priorities at the time.
Granted I was a little kid at the time, so I wasn’t aware of what I was saying or doing. However, my belief and mindset resembled that (at the time of course).
A kid would believe that their parents would always be there for them and provide for them no matter what.
While that may be true, once you start to inherit the ability of being productive for what you do, it ends up becoming an experience that not many people nowadays consider as a grateful advantage that will benefit their future.
Allow me to explain:
Once I turned 16, I began to learn what being responsible can to do to me in a way that can be more beneficial. It was definitely a hard adjustmenet, but I knew deep within myself that I was capable of handling it and being strong. My parents and older brother always look out for me. I appreciate every moment they help me in order to get to where I need to be in terms of being successful and being the best version of myself. I started going to the gym, studying non-stop for my drivers-license written exam (which I passed with a perfect 100% score), taking school even more seriously than I usually do; just so that I can be in a better position than I normally could be.
I was terribly frustrated. Any time I would take a break to spend time with myself or play a videogame just to ease my mind of things, my parents or brother would just give me a lecture on that I have to keep going with the studying and be productive along with saying that I should not just be at home playing videogames, etc. The lecture led to my brother confronting me about
college and future career goals. He told me “Look man you need to get a head start towards finding a career and what you
want to major in college, once you hit 18 years-old, it’s time to transition into exact adulthood…”.
Once I heard him say that my mindset was focused on nothing but finding the pathway to finding a major in college that will eventually lead to my career path. Luckily a year later I took a computer science class in high school and my increasing interest in that field stuck with me.
Jumping a few months to the fall of 2021.
My dad referred me to his manager to work with him at a steakhouse in Manhattan. I saw a fine-dining fancy restaurant when I entered on my first day. I was worried that this job would affect my regular daily schedule of going to school early and having to go to the gym right afterward, along with completing the workload of homework I’d receive. Having the closing shift is the worst even though I can’t close due to personal reasons. On Fridays around 2 pm, I would be preparing to leave my house to get the 7 train. The train rides would be soothing at times when nothing suspicious goes on nowadays in the subway like having a random person scream to themselves for no reason. I would have to get off the stop at 5th Ave in Manhattan. I enter the restaurant and say hi to my co-workers who are all nice to me which I am grateful for. If I was early, I’d wait till 4 o clock pm so I can clock in. But every time I enter a shift, I always worry that I will be the one to close in my position (which is a busser). Closing would mean I’d have to wait for every customer who is
still dining to leave the restaurant so I can reset their tables. Even though I take opening shifts (meaning I set everything up for the day as a busser), I still worry that something will go wrong and that I would have to be the one that closes which once again can be stressful. However, I
was able to maintain moving on from those worries and managing my personal responsibilities… until the summer of 2022.
SUMMER OF 2022
OComponents-that-I-chose-for-portfolionce summer began, I enrolled myself in a summer program for Math at my college called “CIPASS” which was a way for incoming freshmen to get ahead of the math level based on their math placement test results. The program took place for 6 weeks. The whole process throughout that duration of time was nothing but work, work, work, and work. This adjustment was a new experience for me and I am blessed and grateful to have had this opportunity.
I would always have to wake up super early and just when my body reaches out to my mind to tell me to not go and to just stay in bed.
But the thing of life is that you got to do what you got to do.
Anyways the program was from 9am to 12pm and man it was terrible to stay seated for 3 hours straight most of the time. After the program, I would head to the gym for about 2 to 3 hours then I’d head home and start doing the workload of homework the teacher assigned. Depending on the assignments, I’d have to stay up late at night to make sure I
understood every topic. You’re probably thinking “No worries Justin, once the weekend comes, you can take a break from all that”
Long story short… that was not the case
I still worked during Fridays and Saturdays which was not bad until the days where I’d have a test for the program that I would have to study for,
once again that would not be possible because of the amount of study time I’d lose just from working those days which would be stressful. It became my responsibility to make sure I still studied and did everything I had to do…NO MATTER WHAT.
From that moment on, I decided one day to have some time with myself and my thoughts, so I work on my mindset. I thought of the good aspects of having all this responsibility and the benefits of everything I had experienced to this point on. My mind took into realization that everything I have witnessed was only to prepare for the success I would experience in the future. I always try to see the positive side of things whenever it comes to handling difficult scenarios for the reason of being able to see it as a learning experience despite how difficult it is. What I believed at first about what gaining responsibility was all about, I didn’t think it couldn’t get any more beneficial to me than it is today.
WHERE I AM NOW
I am now 18, and wow… I am nothing but grateful for everything that I have achieved and accomplished so far In my life. From being able to have many responsibilities like going to the gym, school, having a job to make some extra cash, and being able to handle any obstacles that get in my way that goes along with being to handle the outcomes no matter what. Just like I mentioned at the beginning of this paper, being productive is what made me inherit responsibilities, and that can obviously work with just about anything for anyone.
