During the school year, there’s always something worthwhile to spend your hard-earned money on. Whether it’s sports merch, dates and dances, or just some quick food after a long day, it always seems like a worthy investment of your cash. If you worked long hours at a summer job, or have a consistent shift at a local restaurant, spending isn’t much of a problem. However, with how busy life can be, not everyone has the time or the teenage credentials to keep a consistently-paying job. So if JCW’s isn’t hiring, but you want to go to Homecoming this year, what do you do? 

“I have ten dollars of gas money and no gas in my tank,” a cheerful Junior told me. “I’m kind of screwed.”

This is James Frank, a student at Herriman High school. In exchange for a nearly-new car, he’s struck a deal with his parents that he’ll pay for the gas he uses. How does he pay for it? With eagle-screeching, flag-waving patriotism. 

“My brother Thomas and I run a flag-planting business,” he tells me. “If it’s a school day I’ll wake up at 5-ish, and go through my route planting flags around the neighborhood, which usually takes an hour and a half. [Our customers] pay $25 for a flag to be put up in their yard on certain days for the whole year. We’ll do it maybe nine times a year, on holidays like Independence Day, or anything else people want flags for.”

Though he tells me it pays well, getting up to set up flags at five in the morning isn’t for everyone. Some of us just want a job that’s relaxing and creative, instead of a repetitive slog through the neighborhood. 

Edwin Medina Garcia, a member of our very own newspaper staff, has found himself the ultimate relaxation job: Breeding cannibalistic fish. Guppies, specifically. He originally bred fish as a hobby and just kept them as pets before he had his moment of inspiration. 

“So, I kept fish, and I was waiting for my guppies to breed and it took maybe six, seven months for it to happen,” Edwin explained during an impromptu interview. “And I just thought, ‘hey, I could make money off this’. So I bought some more supplies and started to sell them on KSL.”

The process was simple: Keep the fish happy and healthy in their tanks until they’re old enough to be sold, pull them out of the tank and have them delivered.

“The fancy guppies are the most popular, since they’re the most colorful,” he goes on to say. “The females don’t get any color on their bodies, only the males [do]. The females are a lot bigger than the males, and they’ll grow up to an inch and a half or two inches.”

Not all of us have the opportunity to make money in the same laid-back, relaxed way, but we should still be grateful for the jobs that we’re able to get. After all, if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.