employment struggles

In the name of eventually making myself actually employable I accepted the weekend swing shift at a south bay colo. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, noon - 8 with a best time 1.5 hour commute each way by public transit. Average time commute is probably closer to two hours. 8 hours at $15 an hour, minus the $16-$20 daily fare, and considering the 3 to 5 hours spent in commute effectively means I am killing my weekends (and thus my social life) for around $9 an hour. Even were this full time, $15 an hour is barely enough to live on*, so I still need to find work on the other four days.

The people at the colo are great, and I will be getting experience and knowledge in both network engineering and systems. Looking at this from a furthering my education standpoint makes it seem like a totally reasonable thing to do (I would have to pay to go to school for not nearly as practical an education) and I look forward learning new stuff. However, from just a mental health perspective, it is going to be really, really, rough. I have already done the commute two days running for other reasons, and the days end up being exhausting.

I need to figure out how to make the time in transit income generating (I can use my laptop on the hour of train time, but have no internet (both Caltrain and Amtrak gave up on those plans). I also need to figure out how to be regularly and sufficiently employed on at least three weekdays so that I can also pay rent, bills, and eat. And, most importantly, I need to figure out how to keep myself functionally happy as my life (and the lives of my dear ones) isn't structured such that most of my socially and emotionally affirming interactions can happen during the week.

*For those not familiar with bay area rents, while living alone in a tiny apartment is my biggest luxury, I still pay less for rent than most people not living with their parents.

employment struggles

In the name of eventually making myself actually employable I accepted the weekend swing shift at a south bay colo. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, noon - 8 with a best time 1.5 hour commute each way by public transit. Average time commute is probably closer to two hours. 8 hours at $15 an hour, minus the $16-$20 daily fare, and considering the 3 to 5 hours spent in commute effectively means I am killing my weekends (and thus my social life) for around $9 an hour. Even were this full time, $15 an hour is barely enough to live on*, so I still need to find work on the other four days.

The people at the colo are great, and I will be getting experience and knowledge in both network engineering and systems. Looking at this from a furthering my education standpoint makes it seem like a totally reasonable thing to do (I would have to pay to go to school for not nearly as practical an education) and I look forward learning new stuff. However, from just a mental health perspective, it is going to be really, really, rough. I have already done the commute two days running for other reasons, and the days end up being exhausting.

I need to figure out how to make the time in transit income generating (I can use my laptop on the hour of train time, but have no internet (both Caltrain and Amtrak gave up on those plans). I also need to figure out how to be regularly and sufficiently employed on at least three weekdays so that I can also pay rent, bills, and eat. And, most importantly, I need to figure out how to keep myself functionally happy as my life (and the lives of my dear ones) isn't structured such that most of my socially and emotionally affirming interactions can happen during the week.

*For those not familiar with bay area rents, while living alone in a tiny apartment is my biggest luxury, I still pay less for rent than most people not living with their parents.