Here is the present draft of the letter I will give to my boss, Carol. Please give any suggestions for improvement.
Dear Carol,
I have been convinced by myself, my teacher, my parents, and my counselors that for the next several years my highest priority should be getting my education. I require extremely high grades of myself that I might be accepted to colleges with extremely high standards. However, here is where a catch-22 arises. To be accepted to those colleges I need pretty phenomenal grades, standardized test scores, and applications, along with a dash of community service, but to be able to go I need big money that neither I nor my parents have; therefore, I need to work and save as much as I can. Unfortunately, it seems from my experience that working is detrimental to my grades: I have made straight A’s all my life with the exception of seven B’s, six of which have been during this school year, which began about the same time I started working at Trezevant.
My job here is great—the hours are flexible, the work is moderate at worst, and the pay is better than that of anyone I know who is near my age. My original plan was to keep working here until the end of my senior year. Several months ago, however, I concluded that with the four AP (Advanced Placement, i.e. college level with college credit) classes that I will be taking senior year, working would be impossible, so I moved my time of departure from Trezevant up to May of 2007 to give me that summer to really get ready for college with visits, etc. (that or be a Resident Counselor at Lakeshore for another $1600 toward tuition.)
This remained my plan until fairly recently. Of late I have come to connect my lower grades and higher level of sleep deprivation with my hours here. I know that next year will be much harder as I will be taking two AP classes (English and U.S. History) and one Pre-AP (Pre-Calculus), so I have had to prioritize. It has come to this: I need sleep more than I need money, and I need fantastic grades more than I need a job. Therefore, I have formulated a new plan, this time one that is much less likely to be altered:
1. Continue to work at Trezevant through the summer
2. Pursue a job at the Pink Palace for the summer to help make up for losses of #3
3. Stop working at Trezevant when school starts back in August
4. Join the Y again
5. Get a lot more sleep
6. Have time to work up some volunteer hours for my resume.
7. Apply for lots and lots of scholarships.
I am sorry that I am not working until graduation like I said I would originally, but this is what I really need to do. To me a full year is a good solid run for my first job, so I do not feel like I am giving up on being a working girl; I just need to focus more on my studies and stress less so that I do not, in the words of my friend Morgan, end up wanting to hang myself by my slit wrists, because let’s face facts here—that is never good.
Thank you,
Sara Stephens
Dear Carol,
I have been convinced by myself, my teacher, my parents, and my counselors that for the next several years my highest priority should be getting my education. I require extremely high grades of myself that I might be accepted to colleges with extremely high standards. However, here is where a catch-22 arises. To be accepted to those colleges I need pretty phenomenal grades, standardized test scores, and applications, along with a dash of community service, but to be able to go I need big money that neither I nor my parents have; therefore, I need to work and save as much as I can. Unfortunately, it seems from my experience that working is detrimental to my grades: I have made straight A’s all my life with the exception of seven B’s, six of which have been during this school year, which began about the same time I started working at Trezevant.
My job here is great—the hours are flexible, the work is moderate at worst, and the pay is better than that of anyone I know who is near my age. My original plan was to keep working here until the end of my senior year. Several months ago, however, I concluded that with the four AP (Advanced Placement, i.e. college level with college credit) classes that I will be taking senior year, working would be impossible, so I moved my time of departure from Trezevant up to May of 2007 to give me that summer to really get ready for college with visits, etc. (that or be a Resident Counselor at Lakeshore for another $1600 toward tuition.)
This remained my plan until fairly recently. Of late I have come to connect my lower grades and higher level of sleep deprivation with my hours here. I know that next year will be much harder as I will be taking two AP classes (English and U.S. History) and one Pre-AP (Pre-Calculus), so I have had to prioritize. It has come to this: I need sleep more than I need money, and I need fantastic grades more than I need a job. Therefore, I have formulated a new plan, this time one that is much less likely to be altered:
1. Continue to work at Trezevant through the summer
2. Pursue a job at the Pink Palace for the summer to help make up for losses of #3
3. Stop working at Trezevant when school starts back in August
4. Join the Y again
5. Get a lot more sleep
6. Have time to work up some volunteer hours for my resume.
7. Apply for lots and lots of scholarships.
I am sorry that I am not working until graduation like I said I would originally, but this is what I really need to do. To me a full year is a good solid run for my first job, so I do not feel like I am giving up on being a working girl; I just need to focus more on my studies and stress less so that I do not, in the words of my friend Morgan, end up wanting to hang myself by my slit wrists, because let’s face facts here—that is never good.
Thank you,
Sara Stephens
