Freshman Benjamin Kronick, works Commercial Crabbing at Defiance Crabs, LLC. This job means early mornings and lots of physical labor.

   The ninth grader says he works his summer job around three-to-five days a week and that means arriving at early hours. “I leave around three in the morning or earlier,” says Kronick. “I got the job by asking my neighbor, who owns his own crabbing company, if he would need any help crabbing during the season.” 

   Kronick has experience fishing and crabbing as a hobby growing up, so the work isn’t completely new to him. “We set bottom lines with 20 crab pots each and wait a few days to check them. In the meantime, we previously set pots and harvested the crabs from them. We repeat this 15 times per day,” says the freshman. He adds this is strenuous work, but as he enjoys the job, and the pay.  He believes this experience is helping to prepare him for the future, and that it’s definitely worth it. It’s important to learn work ethic and career pathways no matter your age, he says. “This job gives me knowledge and experience that will definitely prepare me for a future job,” says Kronick.

   According to the National Institutes of Health,  getting experience and earning money is important, but it’s also equally as important to value your mental and physical health. Working long and very early hours can impact someone’s overall wellness.  “This job is good for my mental health but sometimes I do get very tired,” he says. The freshman shares that he usually does sleep after hours, when he gets home, or goes to sleep earlier the night before, since working hours start so early. He adds that he can also be impacted by the job physically since it requires lots of lifting and dropping large crab pots into the water.

     Kronick said the job also allows him to see and learn a lot of interesting things. “I have fun and see cool things. […] Like I saw a baby seahorse and also there’s always really cool sunrises to see. Just being on the water is cool and definitely worth it even though it can be tiring,” says Kronick.

      “This job is very interesting and I’ve learned a lot. It also helps to support local Maryland commercial fishing businesses,” Kronick shares. His interest in crabbing and fishing started young, and this job choice prepares him and gives him the opportunity to bring it into his future. “It’s definitely the type of thing that I would be interested in and want to do when I am old,” Kronick shares. 

     According to The National Library of Medicine, it’s important to incorporate one’s interests and hobbies when finding a job, to make it more enjoyable and interesting to them. It’s also an important thing to find something that can help people learn new things and prepare them with experiences they can use in the future, and with a future career.