Plenty of BSM students’ lives and conversations at home are heavily influenced by their parents’ occupations. Students’ experiences and knowledge vary depending on whether they are children of pilots, lawyers, artists, and more.
Some students are faced with learning how to be independent, especially if their parents are frequently gone for work. Junior Kaitlyn Cape’s dad is a pilot so he goes on long trips often, and her mom’s job also requires her to be away from home. “Since [my mom]’s an air traffic controller, she doesn’t have flexible hours, so she works really early and really late. My sister and I are home alone a lot. So, you learn how to cook and do a ton of stuff,” Cape said.
Junior Kaylin Konkoly-Thege also knows what it’s like to not see her parents that often because of their jobs as lawyers. Her mom travels all over the world, and her dad works long hours at the Capitol. “Since my grandparents live with me, and especially since we have a bunch of pets and I have a sister, it helps with the fact that [my mom’s] not here all the time,” Konkoly-Thege said.
Although traveling careers take away some time with family, students still get to learn from their parents’ jobs and hear unique stories. Since Cape’s parents both work in aviation, she knows a lot of airport lingo and how to navigate airports. “My dad has taught me how to get around the airport or go through TSA by myself. I fly by myself all the time, but I remember we told family friends, and they were like, ‘I’d never let my daughter fly by herself that far away,’ so it’s just different, but I think it’s really cool,” Cape said.
Junior Vivian Brandt’s mom has had creative jobs like a painter and wedding photographer, so she has an art studio and lots of cameras in her house. Since Brandt’s grown up around that, she knows how to work cameras and a lot about art in general. “[My sister and I] would go out as kids and play with cameras and do art. So I’m very informed on painting and the process. Even before going into art classes, I knew some techniques and stuff like that,” Brandt said.
Some students’ parents’ occupations impact what careers or jobs they’d like to pursue in the future. Brandt’s dad is a medical device lawyer at Boston Scientific, which has opened her up to the medical field. “I wouldn’t know as much about medicine and the medical field and that’s kind of what I’m gonna pursue. I did lab tours and I saw how heart stents are made. So I feel like without him being in that kind of area, I wouldn’t have been exposed to medical devices and how they work,” Brandt said.