My Life in Computers, Part Five: My iBook and a Barbie Van

I was raised to believe that if you wanted something, you had work hard and earn it. That's how I bought my first laptop. I wasn't allowed to work during high school. To their credit, my parents wanted me to know that school came first. School was how to get ahead in life and that required hard work and focus and a job would detract from that. I was, however, allowed to babysit. So, for five years (because we had OAC back then) I went to school, and on the weekends and during the summer I babysat. I put that money away and I saved. Then, when it came time to start university, I was able to buy my iBook all on my own. My first big, grown up purchase. I was terribly proud of myself.

What I have come to realize, though, is that my financial life lessons started long before this purchase. When I was five, Mattel released this Barbie camping van and I just had to have it. I suppose I felt that while her Corvette was nice, sometimes Barbie just needed more space. So, my sister (age three) and I approached our parents and asked if they would buy it for us.

The answer was no. It wasn't either of our birthdays, nor was it anywhere near Christmas, so, no van for us. However, our parents were open to making a deal. If we worked for it and saved our pennies, when we had enough, they would take us to Kmart and we could buy it for ourselves. 

Deal! For the next few months, my sister and I did chores and put our coins in baby food jars in the kitchen. I don't remember what we did exactly and given our ages, I'm sure it wasn't actually that complicated, but the point is, we worked for it and we could see that we were saving.

Finally, the day came and we had earned enough. We were off to Kmart! But, before we went, my sister and I sat down together and discussed our purchase. We had worked so hard and earned so much, did we really want to spend it? Should we keep saving for something else instead? Together we decided that the van was worth it and so we made the purchase.

It wasn't until years later that we told our parents about this discussion. My dad swears he didn't intend for it to be such a watershed moment for us, but the fact is, it was. My sister was three and she remembers. This is a lesson we learned early in life and I am grateful for it.

People don't get these lessons anymore. I think all I have to do is point to Rebecca Black to make that point. But I don't think the world has changed so much in these 20 odd years to say that the lesson isn't relevant anymore. You're supposed to work hard to get what you want. You shouldn't just be able to buy your way into success. There is value in earning your heart's desire. There's satisfaction in not having things handed over to you.

So, in two weeks I'll be trekking into my grown up life, armed with proper life skills. I don't expect to be an overnight success; I expect to work hard to get what I want. And not only that is entirely all right with me I'm really looking forward to it- just like I did with my iBook and Barbie van.