I've always been a worker bee.  From the moment that I was able to go out to work, I did so with gusto.  It's not that my parents forced me to go out and work or made me pay bills but they were just making it financially and I knew they could not stretch their budget anymore to accommodate my adolescent needs.  As they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention," so out of the need to assert my independence and financial freedom, I went to work at 16.     My first job was at Consumers which was a retail store chain that was very popular here in New York City during the early nineties.  I felt like a million bucks working as a cashier there and I would cash my weekly check at the local check cashing place.  There was such a sense of pride for me in being able to earn and spend my own money that it was intoxicating.     Consumers eventually went out of business so I worked at McDonald's during my senior year in high school to be able to pay my graduation expenses.  That was a very … [Read more...]