Maybe you don’t actually dream about a part-time job (some of you might actually have nightmares about it) but you need to stop asking your mommy for money. Yes, she loves you, she has to but you’re too old for that (money not love). Besides, a part-time job is almost as good for you as carrots.
Why?
A part-time job is a perfect way for you to learn how businesses work. You’ll have the chance to learn about yourself, other people and how they interact with each other and most importantly, you’ll get to make some money.
Here are 7 tips to getting an awesome part-time job. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: get the best part-time job, part-time job, ryan porter, youth motivational speaker
Posted in Jobs Nobody Talks About, Make Your Own Lunch | 609 Comments »
Here’s the last 4 reasons why you should take a gap year!
4. Get Qualified
A gap year isn’t just a year to waste away in hostels. It’s a year for you to get some experience and qualifications.
Get your TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate or your Dive Master scuba diving License. Learn some new skills while volunteering on a farm in Australia or gain work experience while working for a winery in France. Learn how to cook at a restaurant in India or guide English tours through the pyramids in Egypt. I have personally met somebody who has done each of the things I have mentioned. All of them are always employed and happy because they’re doing what they are passionate about.
These types of qualifications and experience(s) will definitely make you stand out in any pile of resumes or school applications. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: gap year, Make Your Own Lunch, ryan porter, should I take a gap year, what is a gap year, youth motivational speaker
Posted in Get Lost, Get Found, Make Your Own Lunch | 317 Comments »
If you’ve never heard of a “gap year” before, you need to know that it has nothing to do with wearing khaki’s and sweater vests.
A gap year has nothing to do with clothing. It’s a year that you take off from school (usually after finishing high school before entering college/university/the workforce) to travel, gain experience and meet new people.
Gap years have been popular in Europe for a while but they’re just now becoming more accepted in North America. Some people use this year to volunteer, some work to earn money, some people spend the whole time backpacking and others use it as a time to write and take pictures or all of the above. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Get Lost, Get Found, Make Your Own Lunch | 590 Comments »
Konnichiwa. Bonjour. Hola. Shalom. G’day. Guten tag. Hello.
I love languages. I still struggle with English but I love new languages! I love the fact that everywhere you go people are communicating in their own way and it works! I am also (slowly) learning a new language. I have been studying Japanese for the past 3 years and it’s been incredible.
Learning a new language literally opens a whole new world and gives you opportunities that you couldn’t have had otherwise. (Not to mention it makes you look a lot cooler than the fake Jeopardy nametag and plastic glasses you’ve been wearing for the past 3 weeks – stop that).
After trying a bunch of different ways of studying, I have my own method these days. Here are my top 5 tips for learning a new language.
1. LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE
The most important part of learning a new language is hearing what it’s supposed to sound like. You want to make sure you can sound as natural as possible so you don’t make weird mistakes like telling a girl she is KOWAI (scary) instead of KAWAII (cute) – I watched a friend do this in a nightclub in Japan, I then watched the same friend get a drink thrown at him. True story. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in I Made My Own Lunch, Make Your Own Lunch | 560 Comments »
Alright, it’s no secret that I think traveling is one of the best ways to Make Your Own Lunch™ (click here for my true feelings). While traveling, you’ll get to experience stuff that you could never have experienced sitting on your mom’s sofa watching The Hills or playing Halo 3! And those experiences are what Make Your Own Lunch™ is all about!
If you Google the words “cheap travel”, you’ll end up getting over 34 million hits! That’s a little intense. Let’s make this a bit easier. Here are my secrets to traveling for less than it cost you to go watch the Hanna Montana movie in a theatre. (You thought nobody saw you?) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Get Lost, Get Found | 764 Comments »
Last year I found myself hanging out on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii at the famous Pipeline Beach. I spent a couple of hours watching some of the best surfers in the world surf the biggest waves I had ever seen. They were BANANAS! While I was watching the surfers, I noticed this guy who literally just sat there in the water with a camera getting pounded by waves taking pictures of the surfers. I was pretty interested in why anybody would ever want to do that and when he came onto the shore I made sure to talk to him and ask him what he was doing and more importantly, why he was doing it.
After talking to him for a while and he told me he was a surf photographer. Maybe the best. Job. Ever.
He had a million stories Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Jobs Nobody Talks About | 878 Comments »
Two of the questions I get asked the most by students is, 1) “did your mom really beat up Chuck Norris in a cage match?” and 2) “How did you get to live and work in Japan?”
The answer to the questions are 1) As the legend is told by the Shaolin monks, yes. And more importantly 2) I will tell you how I did it.
I have no idea why I chose Japan. When I was 21, I dropped out of college (I eventually went back and graduated), quit my job at Tom’s No Frills and moved out of my parent’s house. I was broke and on the edge of being homeless.
I knew I had to do something and knowing myself, I knew it would have to be drastic and rip me out of my comfort zone. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Get Lost, Get Found, Jobs Nobody Talks About | 691 Comments »
This is it. You asked for it so I deliver it, just like a pizza but with less garlic so you can still kiss someone after consuming it.
The Make Your Own Lunch™ blog.
This is the place for you to come and learn how you can Make Your Own Lunch™. (Psst, hey new guy, Make Your Own Lunch™ isn’t really about food… Click here to learn about it)
This blog is a place where you can learn about what other people have done to Make Their Own Lunch and how you can do the same. You’ll learn about travel, education, money, hygiene (if you have to pause to smell you shirt -and it smells like a Junior Whopper – I’m talking to you) and a lot of other cool stuff.
You wanna learn how you can volunteer in Thailand, working with sick elephants? That will be here here. You wanna know how I got the chance to move to Japan to teach English in the heart of Tokyo or how I backpacked across Europe and Central America? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Get Lost, Get Found, I Made My Own Lunch, Jobs Nobody Talks About, Lunch Bites, More than Allowance, You, Me, Him & Her | 509 Comments »
