Oh Man Was I Wrong and Lazy in My 20's

I don’t know about you but I’m really paying for taking it easy in my 20's. And I say taking it easy lightly because although I was living at home and didn’t have to pay rent I was covering everything else — food, car, insurance, college.

Still, I say I took it easy in my 20’s because rent today depletes a significant portion of my income and had I known this I promise you I would have at least considered putting away more money when I didn’t have to worry about rent.

I currently live in Houston, TX where the average earning per hour could be as little as minimum wage — less if your work relies on tips — to fifteen dollars if you’re working for a generous or conglomerate retail store i.e. Amazon. Still that fifteen dollar an hour doesn’t come with a cushion-y rollie chair and several chit-chats by a cooler.

Some of the better paying jobs that don’t require education are usually tough hours, in tough environments, and with very little accommodations.

Even still I’m not someone to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I am blessed to work a full time job which covers my benefits and paid time off. And better yet recently I was able to acquire a part-time job to help me save for a home.

Honestly I can’t think of a reason to complain. Simply to say that I sure do wish younger me used a bit of her time more wisely or hunkered down sooner and withstood longer hours or longer days so that 34 year old me could take it easy.

Mind you I only say this because as I head toward my fourth year with my company, at almost 3 a.m., stooping down once again to replenish product on a pusher, I can feel my back telling me I ain’t getting any younger.

Unfortunately because I hadn’t completed my education back in my 20's and took instead a more guaranteed track through retail management I wasn’t skilled in any sector besides retail. And if you’ve ever worked retail then you know that you surrender your life to retail — either by choice or by force.

Luckily for me I had given up my life to retail by choice — for over a decade I had worked with Old Navy earning their execs a pretty penny. However, never realizing that those years could have been earning ME a pretty penny.

You know how it was with twenty year old’s — or at least with me — I was either unskilled and lacked the confidence to pursue a different sector or stubbornly comfortable with what I knew and decided to lie in the bed I made.

It took looking decades into my future and my 30’s approaching to finally wake me up. To finally make a change.

I consider myself extremely lucky — in fact I’ve mentioned luck quite often in this piece already because I genuinely believe that I am. It may have taken me until reaching thirty to stop whining and hunker down and work hard, to appreciate the fortune I had back home, to value time, to save, to be grateful but I’ve reached it and it feels oh so great.

You know sometimes I wonder if it was meant to be this way for me.

As I head into my part-time job after completing an overnight at my full-time I think about how soon classes will start up again and I’m excited. I think about the home I’ll be able to afford in time because of my part-time job. I day dream like I had done in high school and it numbs the pain in my feet and the sleepiness in my head and I think how lucky I am to be in this moment — I even hear the echo of laughter of the younger Alicia and I smile.

My name is Alicia Alcantara-Narrea but I write as Alicia Narrea to carry on the respect and love I feel for my mother — and her father for having raised such a wonderful soul who has exemplified for me the best version of a role model. I love you Mami.