While fidgeting with a makeshift paper weight, Duncan Reese Vansickle sits at his dining room table. Slightly slouched over, showing his gelled, slicked back, spiky hair. Vansickle is wearing a worn grey army shirt and gym shorts.
“As soon as I get home, the pants come off and it’s time to chill,” he says. “I like to keep my school days and work days separate. I can get my homework done on school days and not have to worry about it on days that I work.”
Vansickle works the midnight cashier shift at the Parkville Price Chopper.
“Debbie (his manager) works well around my school schedule,” he says. “I work Friday and Saturday 3:30 to midnight and 6 to midnight on Sundays. If I need time off for a project, or if I just need to take a weekend off to decompress because my brain’s fried, she always gets it for me.
I can even ask her while she’s making the schedule.”
Vansickle started his college education at Maple Woods Community College, transferred to the University of Missouri, Columbia for about a year, and finished his associates’ degree back at Maple Woods.
Vansickle is currently taking 15 hours at Park.
“I have about three years left of school,” he says.
“And every class I take is required for my education major. I usually do my homework during the week…usually. I am a chronic procrastinator and work well under pressure.”
This is Vansickle’s second semester at Park. He is studying education with an emphasis in math and says he hopes to become a math teacher.
Keeping up with a heavy work and school load can be difficult, says Vansickle, and he recommends caffeine, music and Sudoku.
“I almost always have Tech 9 playing while doing my homework,” he says.
“Anything with a fast rhythm works Tech 9 or Busta Rhymes, they all rap so fast that I can’t really understand the lyrics, so I don’t get caught up in it.”
Since Vansickle works the midnight shift, he makes sure all his classes start after 11 a.m. He also keeps all his homework and project due dates organized.
“I have this assistant on my phone, it’s kind of like Siri, but it’s better because it’s Android. I just have to tell it what homework I have and it will remind me on the due date,” he says.
