I transferred to Towson University from Howard Community College in the Fall of 2015. At Howard, I first worked as a math tutor for one semester. I then campaigned and was elected Vice President of the Student Government Association for two semesters. I filed for permission to work outside of school (OPT) and worked in filming and editing with an entertainment company. After a year my OPT expired, and it was time for a new Vice President to take my place. After I had transferred to Towson, I tried to find a job on campus but with no success; and as of this moment I am not working.
I mention all of the above because I know what Just Jobs is all about. It is about the value and benefits of hard work, right? For that, I have some credentials.
For two years before moving to the US, I worked eighty hours a week to pursue my dream of moving to the US and become a film director. I spent my days as a full-time member of an IT department, and three nights a week and Saturday I spent working shifts at a gas station. People called me crazy for working so much, but I knew I could do it. I was no stranger to hard work.
From the age of 18 to 21, I served in the Israeli Defense Force. In the middle of my service, my family incurred financial problems, and the military salary was very low for new recruits. During my free weekends, I worked as an usher and as a busboy at a comedy nightclub. It was a lot of work, but I knew I could do it. I was no stranger to hard work. Before the military, I worked at the Israel-Jordan border as a “general employee”.
Being an employee with no real definition allows people to do whatever they want with you, and I found myself carrying bags of rice that fell off forklifts and sweeping marble stone parts that broke while being lifted from one truck to another. I did it all in 120 degrees. I didn’t know I could do it, but I did. The value of hard work is in the core of me as a human being: always has been, always will be.
Now I am lucky enough to be working on things that I love while pursuing my degree. Graduating with a degree will not be the end of four years in school but the culminating experience of decades of hard work that began with a dream. This dream could never have come to fruition without the values I developed doing supposedly menial things. So while I am editing, writing, directing or producing, I will do it all with the same values that I had sweeping rocks, cleaning movie theaters, and putting gas in cars.
We are proud to announce Raz Tzameret is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for his essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘heart’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.