I've been struggling with this for a while…because of my life situation, I don't need a job (right now) to live comfortably during the school year. I'm afraid that my studies and my mental health will suffer if I try to work for anything other than freelance/commission that's on my schedule during the fall and spring semester. Summers are a different story, but I still struggle figuring out how to get work during the summer as well since I'm frequently out of town.

But what I'm struggling with is does it make me a lazy or irresponsible person to not work while I'm in school. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't really work during my break between my masters and doctorate either…I was stupidly trying to find something in my field and didn't just go for minimum wage jobs etc.

But people around me are convinced that I'll always be dependent on people because I don't work while I'm in school. Maybe I could have gotten away with working during my undergrad. But my work in my masters would have greatly suffered had I had a regular off-campus job not related to my field. And there's no way I could handle the workload of a doctorate with a job beyond freelance sort of things where I set my own schedule.

But I feel like a horrible immoral person and I should be ashamed. I feel like I need to prove that I'm worth something by having a paycheck because I don't think I am otherwise.

SUMMARY: If you can afford to go to school and not work, is it wrong to not have a job while in school?