The First Paycheck

Yesterday, Ariana got her first paycheck ever. It was nearly twice as much as we would have expected. But then again, Ariana worked well over 40 hours for that pay period. Not only that, she actually received a small raise for her first week on the job. Not bad.

The first thing Ariana did with her paycheck was not spend it on whatever thing caught her fancy. Instead, she had me drive her to the bank where she opened up a checking account and applied for a debit card. She pocketed just under one seventh of her pay, putting the rest into her account.

In addition, Ariana got an application for a credit card so that she could have a line of credit already established for when she applies for a car loan in another six months or so.

I have this strong feeling that Ariana is going to be prudent with her money.

The reason for this feeling is seeing how conscientious she is with her job. When I was her age, I had no qualms about calling in sick whenever I did not feel like going to work. But not Ariana. She is firm about not wanting to miss any time from work, not even for necessary doctors' appointments.

It's really amazing to think that this conscientious worker did not even want to consider working at the sprout farm. In fact, she was dead set against it, and it was only at my insistence that she applied there for work.

But now that Ariana's become acclimated to her new job and having to work full time, she has become a lot more accepting of working at the sprout farm.

In addition, Ariana has shown determination in being a good worker.

If she is done with whatever task she was assigned, Ariana would either look to see who else needs help or ask her supervisor for a new task. I think that it's great that she's taken this initiative, especially when many workers take advantage of down time to sit back and twiddle their thumbs.

There are some perks to the job as well. Ariana gets to take home any left over sprouts before the rest are dumped into large containers to bring to the local pig farms so that the piggies can feast on fresh sprouts.

The sprouts that Ariana brings home are fresher than the ones you can buy at the store. And with all the sprouts that I have been consuming in the past week or so, I swear they're coming out of my ears!

All in all, I must say that I feel incredible pride in my daughter. It has been a true pleasure watching her rapidly mature right before my eyes.