It’s been roughly a month since I last updated my blog and so much has happened during this time. So much that I didn’t even realize a month has passed already.
What I did for the past 34 days
- drive 1 hour per trip to and from work to IKEA Richmond
- I work 5 days a week in the IKEA Food Services department
- I spoke to the IKEA Communications & Interior Design department acting manger and got permission to help out in that department. So now I work roughly 6 days a week at IKEA.
- My grandparents came to live with me
- On a whim; bought an iPhone 4S with 3 year term contract for $70/month
( ﾟ∀ﾟ)ｱﾊﾊ八八ﾉヽﾉヽﾉヽﾉ ＼ / ＼/ ＼
- Decided that I want to go back to school and study interior design and merchandising so I can get a full-time position at IKEA
- I spent the majority of my free time either at IKEA talking to people, doing research on which school/program I want to go back to school for, catching up on anime/video games, or keeping my grandparents company.
- And lastly just this morning, I got back from training to be a carrier for the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers for a route near my home. This means I have to get up every morning at 2:00AM and deliver newspapers by car until roughly 5:00AM depending on how many routes I decided to take. I will get paid roughly $650 – $700 per route per month.
I’ve come a long way
I can hardly believe myself that all of a sudden I’m busy as ever, going to work everyday, thinking about my career everyday, and for perhaps the first time in my life having a good idea what I want to be like in 5 years.
This is coming from an individual who dropped out of university in his 2nd year and then spent an entire year sitting around at home and playing video games.
I really hope I don’t go back to being like that.
I am glad you are enjoying your life. However, I should tell you that you have listed a spartan-beyond-all-hell schedule up there. If you keep this up, you will burn out within a year.
First of all, there is absolutely no way you can fit in education in that schedule. No way. Even if it is some kind of workstudy regime, I would still be hard put to nod my head. There is nothing wrong with wanting to learn more about certain trades, but there is also nothing wrong with taking all of it in slowly. You did not survive when education was your focus, you will not live it out when it is a side distraction. I recommend self-study: go pick up a book off the shelf, or talk to some of the people in the department more.
Secondly, spare change is nice, but your paper route should not be a long-term thing. It deeply cuts into your already-sleep-deprived daily hours. Your skill to deliver newspapers cannot really lead you to any significant future career either (unless you want to be a travelling sellsperson or something). This job will really burn you out if you keep at it too long; setup some kind of goal for it, but make it nice and short.
Maybe use your paper delivery as a means to earn some education funds. Think on the bright side: once you let go off the gruelling paper hours, you might be able to free up some time to study more seriously.
No matter what you choose though, you cannot possibly have them all. Or you will really go back to the way you were.
Congratulations on your self discovery It’s great to see you moving on in life. Mind you playing video games all day isn’t bad if it’s a job. lol. Anyway, I also agree with panzer maiger about the sheer amount of work you are doing. There is no way you will be able to cope with those hours. And yeah, delivering newspapers is a skill that not many people will need. But that aside, it’s nice to see you feel that this change is good for yourself. Take care buddy.
As others have said the hours may be rather on the overkill end.
Random note: you stated that you used to sleep at 4 AM (well, 1 AM around 1.5 months ago) right? Isn’t getting up at 2 AM like literally an exact reversal? Thankfully you had a transition phase to switch to that sort of, but I can’t imagine you sleep at like 7 PM either.
On the bright side you’re running motivation properly.
The opportunity cost makes me wonder though, since you elected not to go with TELUS, but you did mention you discovered a passion on interior design and want to go back to school to master it, so that’s fine as well as long as that’s what you want.
And yes I too think this past month went by faster than I could blink.
Good luck in your endeavors.