FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – With an eye for gaming and an aspiration to sell homes, Nicholas Pando, 22, makes a living and finds community working two minimum wage jobs at a video game store and at a real estate firm.
Pando has dedicated his time entirely to work, spending more than 40 hours a week. He is paid Arkansas minimum wage of $8.50 an hour for both jobs. “I am my grandma’s assistant at Lindsey Real Estate, so whenever she needs me to go and sort paperwork, I will go and work there,” Pando said. Pando said he has flexible hours at Dragon’s Keep, which sells video games and comics, making it easier to have two jobs at once. Pando said he definitely classifies himself in the lower class, and “on some days upper lower class.”
Nicholas Pando, sitting on his desk stool, focuses hard on explaining how his favorite game, Magic, is played.Pando lives with his mother and the rest of his younger siblings in Springdale, Arkansas. Although he is not paying rent, Pando said “he pays for his own insurance, phone bill, and car.” He said, “living the way that I live, I would not be able to pay my own rent right now. With the expenses and student loans I have to pay off, it would not be possible.”
“Working at Dragon’s Keep has been one of the greatest ways to have community,” Pando said. “Between working here and playing here you see and meet a lot of people.” The community at Dragon’s Keep is the reason why he landed a job at the store. The people who come in to play community game sessions are from a large spectrum of different annual incomes. Pando said, “It’s more based on people like the game then their income.”
One of his responsibilities at Dragon’s Keep is to take care of the many cats that roam around the store. Pando laughs when he said, “other than shop keeping, someone has to take care of the cats.”
His favorite game is “Magic,” even though he has played games like Pokémon competitively. His biggest goal right now is to pass his real estate exams to eventually become an agent. All he said he can do in the time being is to “take it one step at a time.” Pando believes, “It is best to make the most of what money you have just because there is always something you are missing.”
