no, it is not about some kind of conventional drug I am talking about, it is about a huge entity in our mutual world. Money. I will try to tell you why I am having such awkward thoughts again.
As you probably already know, I want to go to New Zealand in February, and additionally I will go to a 22 day trip to Sweden and Norway in September. Which means, I need some bloody money for that. So, a job was needed. Voilà, the work I was offered to do - unfortunately the only positive summer job application - was at a waste disposal firm in Vienna. I thought, hell I will do it it's getting me some money after all. So I declared I would work for 9 weeks for them. About 70 EUR a day, so not so bad. Hopefully worth the stupid, dirty, non-intellectual work. I've done it last year, it was more or less ok. But in the last four weeks of this work now, I encountered some difficulties: As I am a volunteer, my boss is sending me every day to a place where I am needed; where someone is on holiday or whatever. So, everyday I am somewhere else. I will not describe you the kinds of work I have to do, but some of them -most of them- are reeeeally ok. But one other kind of work, a special place, is, to be short, hell. It is not worthy to be working there, not for a money less than 5000 EUR per month, or even more - noise, dust, dirt, extremely stupid and frustrating work. Because this whole work is not requesting any mental/intellectual abilities, all people are welcome to work there at full-time. What means, there are mostly foreigner who are happy to have a job. And in this very specific horrible place, those poor people are even happy to have this job, they say it's not "that bad", they have seen worse. I don't really know about this topic about immigrants and stuff, but that's not my issue here. What I thought, doing their work for six days in the last four weeks (aaahh): What the hell! People want to live, they should live their lives and enjoy it! It seems for me very frustrating that people abandon their lives for ten hours a day just to live. They are living for their work, and their work ist just crap. I am aware that this point may be clear for you and me, and that it may well be necessary for them to, yes, survive. But … No, it doesn't seem right after all! It's so freaking unfair! And here I come to the main part, where I can assume what's so important about it for me.
I do this (partly gross) work for nine weeks. Well, that's a good time, enough of life lost, but it's just nine weeks. I get a bunch of money out of it which will bring me other wonderful things; I don't need the money for surviving. And here's the thing: I am so damn contented, that I am given the chance to study. I have a social background which allows me to do so, and if I work that's for additional extra for my life like holiday or semester abroad. I can study what is really interesting for me, and probably I will some day have a job that will be interesting as well, so I do what's fun and will get money for it. That's how it's not a crappy thing. I don't know which entity (luck/god/...) I should say thank you to, but really, due to that work I see how lucky I am, how lucky students are.