You know, being a student with a part-time job is a lot like parking at Skyline. Punctuality-challenged students all want the spots closest to campus, and they end up circling the lots in vain. Meanwhile, those of us using our heads park in the dirt lot, and by the time we’re in class we can still see the poor suckers looking for what’s not there.

The poor suckers that I allegorically speak of happen to be those students without jobs, or more accurately, those who refuse to get jobs because they are unglamorous and involve (gasp) actual work. Those of us in the dirt lot are people willing to work to get ahead in life. “Can’t we just revert to a simpler state of living and bring back the barter system? We don’t really need money,” the people without jobs might say. Unfortunately, most of us do not live in communes where hand-carved soap dolphins can be traded for organic vegetable pot pies, so you can count that out.

On the other hand, would trading soap really get you anywhere? You can’t just slap it on your resume next to thumb-twiddling and head-scratching. Did Andrew Carnegie get to be as filthy rich as he was by luck? No, and neither will you. So what if you can’t find the ideal job-take what you can get, and stop complaining.

I’m not talking about the poor souls who have two jobs, a family and go to school. They already have their work cut out for them. They know all too well that jobs are needed to survive. I’m talking about those people who hit up their mothers for Starbucks money every morning. You know who you are, and you know it’s not right.

Yes, we’ve heard both sides of the argument before: nasty, oppressive jobs turn you into slave-things of large corporations; they’re degrading and the pay sucks, so say the students. On the other hand, you can’t expect to waltz into a white-collar job and instantly become a CEO. The dot com boom ended years ago, employers will dryly tell you.

As it turns out, The Man is right. Wake up, people. There is a job hierarchy out there that you cannot beat. Stop dreaming of money trees, and learn how to play the game that everyone else does. Learn it well enough, and you might actually go places, and by “places” I mean to a wage other than minimum.

I can remember a particularly dismal financial spell I went through: My mom was all mooched-out and rightfully refused to give me anything more than bus fare. Well, you need to eat when you’re stuck at school. I would count my pennies (yes, pennies) and hope that I would have enough to afford a Little Debbie snack cake from the book store.

A couple times, I spent my bus money (like dollar bills and quarters) and ended up short of the exorbitant $1.25 fare. Luckily, I had a handful of pennies, and tricked the bus driver into thinking I’d covered the fare. It was a shameful moment. After a while, I got sick-sick of not having any money and sick of asking my mom for cash. It was then that I decided I needed a job-any job. Pride be damned.

Sure, I had been saving myself for that perfect internship. You know, the one that pays $12 starting and gives benefits and doesn’t make you work Saturday? Yeah, I never found it. What I did find was my current job. It’s as good as any retail job is, which isn’t fabulous, but I have received two raises in the past year, and that’s not bad at all.

And let’s face it, most jobs aren’t as bad as they seem. Yes, you have to put up with rude people and boredom, but then again, you could pick fruit for a living. A living. Or you could have to support yourself by waving a sign in the blazing sun on a street corner, advertising housing down the road. Or, you could have to sell roses in parking lots out side of banks. Or, you could dig ditches. The list goes on.

My point is, despite the fact that most of us here are thoroughly blue-collar we’re not that bad off. It’s not like we live in shanties and slums. So take that job at the coffee house down the street, or at the mall sunglasses hut. Get some experience and get paid while you’re at it. Who knows? In time, perhaps you will be CEO of that company you’ve dreamed of, or at least get a better parking spot.