The Things I'll Do for Money

I'm going to start this story off by making it clear that I am a college graduate. Now, anyone who has been a college student knows that there are plenty of times throughout college where money is tight. A job becomes a must, or some other way to make a buck here or there. Now, for someone who has reasonable anxiety when it comes to putting myself out there, there isn't much I wouldn't have done in college to make a quick dollar.

In fact, that's what this whole story is about. It's about some of the more mortifying things I was willing to do to make some quick money in college. Now I never went so far as to be a nude model for the art department. That's even too much for me, though kudos to those of you out there who are comfortable enough with your body to do that. That's not to say that I never modelled or did other things for the art department.

The one that stands out the most for me was actually something I did for a friend (and also happened to get paid for). This particular friend was working on becoming a fashion designer, which is super cool in my opinion. For this particular project, she was tasked with making a wedding dress for a man. Now a days, I'm much more open to bending gender norms when it comes to clothing. In college, not so much, but I was a good friend (who also wanted money, so maybe a little selfish) and was willing to have her design this dress for me.

I should have asked more questions. It wasn't until well along the project where I was informed that some projects would be picked to participate in a modeling show. Hers was, so I got to model it. I'm sure pictures still exist somewhere of me in this dress. I know she has some, but they'll never see the light of day if I can help it. I made my quick dollar though.

Now another rather embarassing thing I got to do for the art department for money was pose for the still life classes. Now mind you, this is different than the nude modeling, but it was still awkward for me. For the particular one that I was able to assist in, there were two models for the class. It was meant to be a romantic couple going in for the kiss. So picture it, me, a shy awkward guy who had literally never kissed anyone at that point having to act like I was going to kiss a complete stranger. There we are, our faces inches apart, having to hold that position for a good hour and a half.

Yeah. It was uncomfortable. I spent the whole time convinced that my breath was bad or something along those lines. It brings me comfort now to know that the other person was just as uncomfortable and concerned as I was. We had a good discussion about it after, and ended up becoming friends. Better yet, both of us broke college students got to make a little bit of money that day.

The last story of my college time misadventures has to do with my actual job. The one that I got paid for by the hour to be there and actually get work done. I was fortunate enough to be an event manager, someone who goes from event room to event room making sure everything is perfect for the clients. Sometimes, this meant staying in said rooms and helping out throughout the event. I did this at our student center. It was a lot of fun, I met a lot of cool people this way. I also had a lot of strange moments. I didn't have a lot of embarassing moments though, but there was one. This moment wasn't as embarassing for me as it was the other people involved, but I suffer from second hand embarassment something awful, so it may as well have been me.

Our event rooms were locked if they weren't in use. This just made sense. It meant that no one could just go in them and use them for whatever. Unfortunately, people weren't always the best about locking the doors. This meant that sometimes people did get the opportunity to use these rooms for whatever they wanted, whether it be the appropriate place for said activity or not. If you can't guess where this is going, let's just get there. Picture innocent, junior year me, who still hasn't kissed anyone yet (judge away), walking into one of our smaller conferences room to get it ready for the next event. The lights are off, but the door is unlocked. A simple mistake. I turn the lights on, and right in the middle of the room is a couple getting it on, and I do mean all the way. This was no light make out session.

So now I have to break this up, which didn't take long, but was defintely very awkward. I then have to follow this up by announcing over the radio that every employee in the building uses exactly what I had just walked in on. This was just as awkward to me, but I made it through it. Better yet, I got paid for the whole experience.

So there we have it. Most of what I consider my embarassing moments were self induced solely because I needed, nay, wanted, a quick dollar. Do I have any regrets? At the time, I might have, but looking back on all of these, they are just a good story to tell. Albeit, I don't share these stories often. Mostly because people would want the pictures or the art from those that directly involve me, and that's not happening. You can have the story, that's it.