Naomi Allen: With great kittens comes great responsibilities

This summer, has been the busiest and most eventful season I have ever had. Most summers contain me binging 50 different animes, creating an imprint of my body shape in my parent’s living room couch and eating free snacks at their expense. at k

Now I am being forced to acknowledge responsibilities that I spent two months of the summer ignoring. Most twenty-two year olds will secure a stable job before making a thousand dollar decision to live by themselves without the financial support of their parents, but I remain ignorant to obligations. And after a month of watching TV and hanging out with my friends, I decided to finally fight for a job.

Seeing how my summer began, I have clearly dismissed any initial ideas that I am a hard worker. I spent an entire month unemployed, scared and relentlessly calling local entry level jobs until even I got annoyed hearing my own voice.

There was a particular store that I was interested in. I knew old friends that are working there and I knew it was everything I want in a job. I ended up getting a job, I will not say where, and it was the end of my panics. Although, it wasn’t the job with my friends and the things I wanted to do. This was the end of my struggles and the start of paying off my debt. Or so I thought, until I calculated how much and how long it would take me to pay everything off.

 I was devastated and so I pushed even harder and got a second job. I thought everything was finally working out for me. Then I learned an important lesson on the way; responsibility.

This is one of the words that I hate, because everything in its category holds weight. As I took on those two jobs I also took on a type of parenthood. I got a kitten. He would wake me up either at the crack of dawn or whenever he would be hungry. He demanded playtime whenever he was awake, no matter what time it was, and he was a picky eater.

I never thought a cat would teach me how much I am not ready to be a mom. Even so, every time I think about him I realize he was something I wanted in my life. A constant reminder that I chose to have in my life, someone who would really reward me for all of the love and effort I gave to him in his life.

The love I give to my jobs, the people I work with and the customers I came in contact with became more important. The energy and love I put into my work became rewarded when I would see their satisfaction. Without responsibility, I don’t think I would have been able to get as far as I did.

I enjoyed every day of this summer. I enjoyed working, speaking with customers, speaking with coworkers, loving my cat until he left and even wasting that entire month on anime. It was filled with lessons and responsibility took the cake when it came to teaching me those lessons.