Questions come at students, like seasons come to land: different situations ask different questions which are answered differently. However, having aged through two years of student life, I have realized that there is one such question which seems to be a question for all seasons, one such question that students regularly ask themselves or get asked – to “work” or not to “work” while studying?
From a distance, this question seems to lead to an obvious answer and the student who “works” while studying is seen to be headed in the path of success: I am quite sure that many people have already told you the greatness of the student who studies and does a job simultaneously.
Hence before I embarked on my university degree, I came at it from a distance and immediately planned a course schedule to make room for a job. The plan seemed to be planned to perfection and from my view, I saw the chance to foot my own bills and learn to literally walk in the world. Classes began and so too did work and as I moved with my newly found feet, I eventually came to a stop, a stop at all ways, a stop at which I began to critically asses the progress of my movement.
It was awesome that I was able to make a buck or two and that I was complimenting my education with an education in work experience. But the toll could not be dodged and I began to feel as though I was breaking the limit on the highway of life. I have just completed my second year as a “working” student and it was in my “Sociology of Work” class that Professor Stephen E. Bosanac introduced me to an idea that summed up the rocky roads I was speeding on. The idea was that of “Socially Reproductive Labour”.
Now before I open up the idea, it must be said that my aim here is not to scathe the idea of a student studying and holding a job simultaneously. However, I do not aim to shower praise at such a student, praises which we all know about. My aim is to stress the idea that different folk work with different strokes and that it is not necessary for a student to hold a job in order to matter.
With the idea of “Socially Reproductive Labour” ( SRL ), Stephen elaborated that students often forget that their education in and of itself suffices as labour, i.e. work – we invest our minds, our time, our bodies and so much more to acquire knowledge and sets of skills that hold the potential of making society’s matters move. Our role as students not only shapes our future roles but gives a set of roles to millions around us and if it was not for our work in the classroom, the labour of professors and the university itself would be non existent. The student who studies is engaging in work, work which involves working with knowledge and deploying it wisely. The difference here is that we pay to work and this often blinds students to the reality of their work status. Stephen warned us to realize that work is not work because it brings in a special paper called the dollar. Work is about exercising the mind and body, it is about putting an effort to make matter move and unless a student pays no attention to academics, then each student at university is a “working” student! The idea is powerful, so simple yet subtle, obvious yet obscure. Stephen was not blind to the demands of the dollar and he realized that students have to make ends meet. But the onus of his explanation was that students need not see themselves as any lower on the achievement scales, if they are not holding a job while at university.
I know this for a fact that each semester, ideology and finances will get you to consider taking up a job. Take the opportunity to consider and do so wisely. If you can take studies and a job hand in hand, then hats off to you and if you choose to get your hands into your studies only then hats off to you too. There is no dictionary definition of the successful student. The journeys of success are adventures for you to unravel and far from following the footprints of those before you, carefully chart your own course and live to tell and hear many more from both yourself and those around you.
Enjoy the journey and the seasons of the semesters!
Author: Ali Abbas






















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