Priority dilemma

I just talked to my parents about my priorities. This week I will work for 6 hours, down from 18 two weeks ago. I used to work Monday 3-8, Tuesday and Wednesday 3-6, and all day Saturday. Now I have band competitions on Saturdays. Monday and Wednesday are jazz band rehearsals, so I can work 3 hours Monday and nothing on Wednesdays. I'm still too busy for much work on Thursdays, but could squeeze a couple hours in if I felt really productive. Soon, a sport that I got good at this past summer, table tennis, is going to begin from 3-4 on a couple nights every week. My employer said that I could come in at 6 until 8 before school every morning because I come in at 6 on Saturdays, but I can't even do that. I get to school every day at 6:30 to lift weights. I am in 0 hour gym, but only have to go 2 days a week. I go Monday through Thursday. This helps me because I don't have to keep track of the days I lift, and it is easier to wake up at a constant time.

I get my homework mostly done in the couple hours between work/band and 10, when I go to bed. I also do some homework just before school starts, after gym. My free time is Sundays after 4pm. Of course, this is also when I do homework. But I am not complaining. I hate when people complain, though sometimes I do, or people think I am, which is just the same as actually doing it. I have fun being busy. I hate to do nothing for long periods of time, but sometimes I want to play video games or watch television for an hour.

Also, I feel bad. Whenever I tell my band director that I can't come to the unscheduled Monday night rehearsal, she understands, but doesn't seem to quite forgive me for the misdemeanor that I didn't actually commit. Also, when I tell my employer that I won't be working the 10 hours I was working last week, I don't feel like I'm giving my 100%. But I really am. Not in one area, but in life. I just figured out that as long as I give my life 100%, I don't have to work all the time or do band all the time. I am trying hard and it isn't my fault that I can't work more than 6 hours a week. If I get fired, I just have more time for other things.

But there is one more thing. I want a cool car. Right now I have a blue subcompact nerdmobile that my girlfriend describes as cute. I love it because it runs and gets me where I need to go reliably, but it isn't what I want. I remember my dad talking about a car show in Parkersburg where he used to live. He said it was fun to see all of the guys he grew up with bringing their old hotrods from highschool. Am I ever going to bring my Tercel to a car show? My dad used to buy cool cars from junkyards with a friend and fix them up so that they would work. That is exactly what I want to do. My parents aren't thrilled with the idea of a junk car in the driveway, but they aren't totally against it either. All I need is a little more convincing and money. Well I have a job....

A teen job is a job for money, and for stuff, for the teen's self. I planned to budget my money so that about 10-20% would go to a college fund, 10-20% would go to spending money (anything that I buy). The rest would go to another account for a car.

After school activities are for fun, but also to make parents proud. I could have fun staying at home all night long playing an online video game while talking to friends, or I could have fun marching in the band or bowling for free on the bowling team talking to friends. The difference is that my parents would try to get me to play a sport if I stayed home. I remember a cartoon that I saw a long time ago. It was called Codename: Kids Next Door, or something like that. There was this organized band of kids who faught againts the evils of adults while keeping a relative peace with their own parents. In one episode, two bad adults named "Mom" and "Dad" were kind of freezing all the kids in this worldwide group in a goupy gel kind of thing. The last survivor was the bad people's son. They told him that they did that so he could have more time to do things other than this group. He told them to unfreeze all the kids, but they wouldn't until he started calling his coaches and quitting all the activities he was in.

I could work a lot for myself and get a lot of money for myself to spend on myself, and I would get a nice car for myself. That would make me happy. Or I could play sports and stay busy at school and have a good resume for college. That would be good for me and make my parents happy, but where is my nice car?

I feel like I could do something for my parents and get nothing, or I could get a car by doing something just for myself. I tried to explain this to them but they started saying things like "we'll support you either way" and my mom started talking about being poor while young is a lot better than being poor while middle-aged. I feel like my employer is asking me to do them either a favor without getting paid or offering extra paid hours. I want to be nice and do the favor (especially if this is a long-time employer) but then I can't get those extra hours that I want.

I'll sleep on this.