It may be difficult balancing a work schedule with a school schedule; however, many students at Dimond are, apparently, quite good at the balancing act. Although there are a plethora of different reasons as to why students get jobs, there are a few that are more common than others. Kirsten Moore, a sophomore who is currently looking for a job, said that she “wants a job to help pay for gas and have some extra spending cash.” Paying for gas has become quite the challenge for many high school students who have their own car. Emma LaRosa, another sophomore, said that even though she shares her car with her dad, she still likes to help out by paying for gas occasionally. She said getting a job will make her feel better about driving the car so much because then she can help out her dad. Another reason some teens get jobs is basically because they want extra money to spend on clothes, shoes or games. Michael Aronwits, also a sophomore, works at American Eagle and said that he enjoys his job “because it has good pay.” An advantage of working at clothing stores or fast food places would be getting free clothes or food. LaRosa, who works at Yogurt Lounge, mentions that it is nice to be able to get free yogurt occasionally. Amanda Amodemo, a junior who works at Aerie, says that the discount she gets from working there makes everything “so much cheaper” and that “it’s nice to get a first look at all of the new shipments of clothes.” Many students at Dimond work at their favorite sports shops like Sports Authority or the Soccer Locker. Apparently the most enjoyable places to work around Anchorage are clothing stores such as Aerie, American Eagle and Nordstroms and other miscellaneous places such as Yogurt Lounge or Bouncin’ Bears. Another popular job for teenagers, especially girls, is being a hostess at restaurants. Moore thinks that it would be fun to be a hostess because “It seems really easy, all you do is show people where to sit.” Although some teens may really want a job, some of their parents may not be too enthused with the idea. Many parents believe that having a job would take away from homework time. Amodemo said that it was “hard to get used to managing my time at first, but eventually I was able to get used to it.” Parents are able to admit that they are scared that their kids’ grades will go down due to the time they spend at their job. Students, however, disagree completely. Austin Osborne, a sophomore, said that “It was nice to have a job in the summer,” because he “didn’t have to worry about school work being affected.” However, he also admitted that “having a job during the school year would be nice too, because then you have money for school lunches and extra stuff.”