Let’s be real. Post-grad life, which used to be about striking out on your own, is now about adjusting to life back with your parents. It’s about embracing near constant despair while looking at Indeed.com. Finally, and most crushing, it’s about the neverending conversations you have regarding what the hell to do about impending student loan payments. This is a huge problem.
According to Student Loan Hero, the median student debt owed in the U.S. is a whopping $37,000. That’s up 6% from last year’s numbers. This means a good number of students are starting adult life nearly $40,000 in the red. The 6 short months between when you graduate and when the bank starts yanking at your chains to pay up, is quicker than a flash of light. The high loan amount is only one problem too. Another is, due to that debt, students no longer have the opportunity to become independent adults after college.
“For the first time in the modern era, adults from the ages of 18-34 are more likely to live with their parents than any in any other type of living arrangement.”
Let’s take a look at the domino effect in action. The education system has royally screwed students. First, many of us, as ignorant 18 year olds, are forced to take out loans for school. Mainly because we’re told we can’t get any job above burger flipping without that crisp piece of paper. We then continue filling out our FASFA forms each year, taking more money without the ability to start paying back the money we already took.
And lets not forget that beautiful 5% interest rate they throw on to our loans. Loans usually taken by a kid who has never had a stable job. Fast forward four (or five) years, and the world is our oyster, ready to be blessed with our 3.5 GPA minds, and almost the same work experience we had when we were debt free at 18.
On average, the monthly student loan payment for someone right out of college is $350. This is why college graduates are moving back in with their parents at record levels. For the first time in the modern era, adults from the ages of 18-34 are more likely to live with their parents than any in any other type of living arrangement.
I can assure you this abrupt change in adulthood has little to do with an increase in family bonding, and everything to do with the fact no one can afford to live on their own any more. To be fair, who can imagine taking on the bills you have when you live alone and debt of $40,000 hanging over your head?
Moving back in with your parents is just the tip of the iceberg for the de-evolved adult. At this point, that four year degree you worked so hard for does little for you in the job market. What it does do is shove you into the awkward space between too experienced for minimum wage work, yet too inexperienced for jobs you want that use your degree. This is exactly what lead me to my first post-graduate job; a part time after school teacher. My co-workers range from teens still making their way through college, to middle aged women who never went. Oh, and I hate children.
Why would I take that job you ask? Because like everyone else who just graduated, I took the first job I could get. It had nothing to do with my degree, and everything to do with money. Besides our inability to qualify for an entry level position, which now requires 18 years of experience and an organ donation, loans also take away our one shot of getting our foot in the door. That doorway is also blocked by the largest legalized form of slavery going; unpaid internships.
An unpaid internship at a posh publishing house would do wonders for my resume, but jack shit once that $350 loan bill comes along. The real problem with student loans isn’t actually the loan, it’s the fact these loans force us to de-evolve as adults. They push us back into the same weird shade of green bedroom and minimum wage job that kept us afloat during the lazy days of summer. The only difference; our ever increasing debt and age.
It’s been about two years since I graduated, and I’m still stuck deep in the trenches of the job search. I have little dignity left. I look at those unpaid internships and wish I could make that work. The thought of getting my foot in the door at any publishing house is certainly tempting. The reality is, with bills piling in my mailbox, and the banks tugging at my leash, I wake up for my 9-5 job feeling slightly dead inside.
Open your eyes. The dominos have fallen and created an entire new generation; the de-evolved adult. We’re trapped in a hamster wheel. Paying for a degree we can’t afford, and thrown into a job market that doesn’t support the degree we just worked for. Dejectedly, I confess, I currently see no way off the wheel.
Meanwhile, college tuition continues to rise at nearly 3% every year for public universities. I can’t say I really blame the Debt Dodgers. They’re student debtors who are trying their luck at disappearing overseas, rather then starting the rest of their lives already in the dog house.
Liz Arnone is currently a free lance writer trapped in the 9-5 corporate work place. She loves hiking, swimming, the book of the month club, and writing articles about feminism that makes strangers yell at her online. Her dream job is to write for a women’s magazine or become a mermaid. Whichever works out first.
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