Sean Sullivan
Time Management
I remember a time in my life when I could not even do homework. It was not a matter of me not being capable of completing it; I just could not motivate myself to complete it. In the beginning of my sophomore year is when I realized I had to get motivated if I wanted to do something more with my life. I missed the honor roll every term my freshmen year by two of three percentage points. If I had only done the homework the honor roll would not have even been a question, in fact, high honors probably would have been more the case. I realized that you only go through high school once and to not do the best you can is a waste.
Being in high school is a task by itself. Playing a sport in high school makes it keeping up with your studies t hat much tougher. Working while playing sports and being in school makes it nearly impossible, but I somehow make it work.
Senior year of high school; excitement and anxiety are the two emotions everyone is feeling. By this time next year we would all be out on our own in the “real world”. Many would be out trying to get jobs for some extra spending money, whether at college or at home still. I, for one, will not be looking for a job. I already have one as an employee at Family Wireless, a local Verizon Wireless retailer. My boss is pretty tough on me and I can never call out of work without him knowing, that is because he is my dad.
Working for a family business is tough. Especially in the first year of business we are in. There have been many Friday and Saturday nights where I have had to drop plans I had made to go into work for a few hours and help. The way that it is different from any other job is you are not only supporting yourself by working, you are supporting your family. It takes a lot to get a business up and running so I do what I can when not in school or playing football or baseball.
I manage to keep my grades up between the two, but doing so is very difficult. I am able to bring some school work to work and get what I can of that done while I am there. When we close at 8 on weekdays I usually cannot even start my homework until 9 after eating dinner and showering so it is really all about time management. I also utilize my study period, during school, to get work done.
From August to December, it is football season, during that time football is your life. Trying to find time to just hang out with your friends is difficult; working on top of that gives me little, to no free time. March to June is baseball season; a little more free time than football, but still not enough. Out of the 12 months in a year I have about three or four that I can dedicate myself to working and helping my family.
I really enjoy what I do at work. Helping people with any problems they have gives me a good feeling. My job definitely takes some people skills. Selling the Verizon product is not too hard because it is, in my opinion the best service around. Convincing people of that and giving reasons can be hard. There are times when people can be very rude and ignorant, I have learned to just stay calm and try to handle them the best I can.
Since opening I definitely have seen an improvement in my people skills. I feel more confident when I speak. I used to mumble quite a bit but by working I have learned to stop because it makes me seem unknowledgeable and also shy, two traits I would not like to portray. I never would have thought that by working in a family business selling cell phones would be able to change the way I act and present myself, but it has, and for the better.
