I work as a ticket girl at my local park. It’s a job that you can’t screw up, even if you try. Kinda like failing gym, or community college night classes.

1. Vehicle pulls up to gate.

2. I smile and greet the occupants of the vehicle.

3. They hand me two bucks.

4. I hand them a parking ticket.

5. I tell them to have a nice day.

6. They go off and have a nice day.

7. I read, watch DVDs, and plan potential blog topics.

8. Repeat until my shift ends.

Don’t get me wrong, variations of this pattern do occur. Occasionally, the visitor will give me five, ten, or twenty bucks and I will have to make change. Sometimes, they’ll give me their season pass and I will have to give them a green parking ticket, rather than the standard orange ones. Every now and then, the superintendent will come by and I will have to hide my DVD player… or cell phone. (We can’t have neither while on duty.) But basically, I do the same thing for however many hours I have to work that day.

So, I was working with this girl who totally screwed everything up. Her first day, she used the wrong bundle of tickets (we have to keep them in order, which anyone with a first grade education can do). She gave visitors entire tickets, when we’re supposed to tear off one part to give to the visitor, and keep the other part to show that we did indeed sell that particular ticket. She’d let a whole line of cars go by because she was too busy watching movies (thanks a lot for getting DVD players banned).

And it didn’t stop there. This girl never wanted to work. She’d call in sick constantly, and the few days that she’d come, she’d pretend to be sick just to get to go home. Apparently, she didn’t need the money, neither. She even told me that her parents pay for everything, that she just wanted the job to have something to do.

She’s a seventeen-year-old with the biggest sense of entitlement I’ve ever seen. We worked together one day, and she was bragging nonstop about various things. About how she wrecked her Mustang, and Daddy ran out and bought her another one. About how she has been attending proms since eighth grade, and she’s never had a dress that costed under $400. About how she gets a new cell phone every two months or so, whenever she gets sick of the old one.

This is exactly what’s wrong with society. These young kids are focusing on all the wrong things. They’re worrying about how much stuff they can accumulate, instead of worrying about how they can make the world a better place. They’re worrying about what they can do to look “cool” on the outside, and could care less about how they are on the inside.

It’s become so epidemic, too. Turn on the TV… there are millions of shows depicting spoiled young girls (and guys, too). Sadly, these reality shows are very… real.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy having nice things, but I enjoy them even more when I have earned them. I still live with my folks and don’t have to help with bills, but I pay my $300 worth of bills on my own, every single month. Even when I wasn’t working for a handful of months at the beginning of the year, I got creative with my tax refund, my eBay sales, and even dipped into my savings account to make ends meet. I don’t like asking for help for anyone.

So yeah, I drive a Sunfire. I have a cheap cell phone, and before I got an Alltel plan, I used a crappy Tracfone for four years (until I started buying too many cards and figured I’d come out better in the long run if I just got a real plan). I’ve only been to one prom, and my beautiful dress was $48, cut down from $220. I buy my own clothes, and never anything full-price. I love eBay so much. I’m taking cosmetology in the fall, and planning to pay for tuition, books, supplies, etc. all on my own. Hopefully, I’ll find a job that fits with my school schedule, even though my folks told me that I can take a break from work if I want to.

The thing is, I don’t want to. I want to be as independent as I possibly can. I want to live my life with integrity, and do the best that I can in everything I take on. This means more to me than all the riches under the sun.

Oh, and guess what happened to that girl… she got canned. I totally saw it coming, and can’t say that I feel sorry for her. We will now have a male co-worker, which I find odd, because all the guys who work in the park typically do the tough jobs or serve as lifeguards when the pool opens. So I have a feeling that this will be quite interesting.

In many ways, I suppose I’m your average almost-twenty-one year old female. I’m fairly progressive in my views, but I believe there are some traditional values worth hanging onto. I believe in doing as you please, but I also believe in moderation. I think you should follow your bliss, but remember that a hard day’s work never hurt anyone. I find the technology terribly convenient, but I also think the human element is a very important one.

I’m not college educated (unless you want to count my three semsters at the local community college). I’ve never gathered in coffee shops with intellectual kids in horn-rimmed glasses and indie-rock t-shirts to discuss Freudian psychology. I’m not well-researched. I just know what I know, and I don’t like to speak unless I know exactly what I’m talking about.

I have dreams, and I want to achieve them. My ambitions may not be much, but they’re mine and mine alone. I want to be successful, and I want to be a part of society, but I want to do it on my terms. I value my alone time, and I have to have my space. Sometimes I want to giggle nonstop, and sometimes I want to cry. Sometimes for no reason.

I’m struggling to find out exactly who I am. I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, this blog will help.