On its own, school can be very difficult for some students and seems as though it is impossible at times. Many students at Freedom High School have part-time jobs after school and also during the weekends, which can be extremely long hours. 

Not only do students have outside-of-school jobs, but they may also be involved in multiple extracurricular activities. Due to limited time, it may be hard for teens to balance their activities on top of schoolwork.

“Since we’re back in school now, I’ve been trying to manage my time better by not letting myself get too stressed out,” said Aya Fakir, a senior at FHS who currently works at Dunkin’ Donuts in Dulles Landing. “I’m [also] working on my procrastination. Recently, I’ve been trying to do assignments ahead of time so I don’t have to do them last minute and that has helped me a lot.”

There are many students however, who do have jobs but there are also many students who had to quit their jobs because of their academics and extracurriculars. Either they may not be ready to take on the responsibilities that come with having a job or they may not have any time at all. 

“I quit [my job] because of football and school [since] I need to put more of my time and effort into those,” said Ali Chaudhary, an FHS sophomore who previously worked at Jersey Mike’s Subs. “It started to affect my academics because I’m focused on sports, which is a big part of my life, and on top of sports, I have schoolwork. So having to go to work was annoying, because when I’d come home from work, I’d be really tired and not want to do anything but sleep, which was not a good thing.”

Currently, multiple companies across the country are struggling due to their lack of workers, especially in the fast-food industry. Most fast-food places rely on teenagers to work, so when they are not able to or are not willing to, it makes it harder for these businesses to stay open. 

So what can be done? It’s not as simple as it may seem. If teens are only able to work 1-2 days a week, then there will not be enough employees to run the business. There isn’t a true solution to this issue but through encouragement amongst each other, maybe it will uplift individuals into working and helping the community.