I know why our generation has no motivation to do anything. I've put a lot of thought into it. I lost sleep over it. I've felt it, I've fought it...
I'm going to highlight here three things people between the ages of 18 and 30 SHOULD be doing but are happily putting off:
#1- Get higher education
Unless you get a full ride or mom and dad can pay for it, you will pay out the ass for for the next 15-20 years of your life
You may think it's common place to go to college. But college takes a lot of things... money, restraint, time, diligence, self-control... Going to college starts Freshman year of high-school. You begin prepping. You start racking up those good grades, building a GPA, building a list of extra curriculars, lining yourself up to take honors and AP classes, lining yourself up to get a high SAT score. Going to college starts 3 years before you even look at one. Then, junior or senior year you start looking at colleges that have the major you want to study. You start narrowing it down. You want to do reverse engineered biomedical studies. Who's got it? What does it take to get in? How expensive is it? You visit. You test. You pay to put in an application. Getting that letter of acceptance doesn't mean you are going to college- plenty of people get the letter and never go. They get hit with the bill, they don't get enough student aid, they can't get the loans. Some decide to go to community college and it's so much like high-school (heck, half their buddies from high school are there) that they forget there was ever a place to go away to and they decide to stick around. IT's EASIER. It's more FUN. It takes less effort. They become a regular around town. They become a "big-timer" in a small town.
If you do go away, many students have to leave after the 1st semester or 1st Year. If grades aren't high enough, scholarships go away. if performance on a team isn't up to par, scholarships go away. If your parents made more money(assuming they co-signed), financial aid goes away. If your parents made less money and are unable to co-sign, financial aid goes away. Lots of things can go wrong in that first year of being set free. The drop out rate is high
#2- move out of mom and dad's house (without higher education you can't get a high paying job and thus you cannot afford the expenses of living on your own.... and room mates actually suck after college)
#3- get married (can cost a good amount of money to do-but doesn't have to- and then you don't want to live at home with mom and dad and your new spouse...uh oh)
#4- settle down and have kids (again, hard to do at home with mom and dad and no money....)
#'s 2, 3, and 4 actually could entail home ownership, which our generation has no urge to invest time or money in because, let's face it, there's not so much money in their pockets anyway.
So cheers to 'Murica, where debt kills dreams.
But we are a nation who thrives on living beyond our means
I'm going to highlight here three things people between the ages of 18 and 30 SHOULD be doing but are happily putting off:
#1- Get higher education
Unless you get a full ride or mom and dad can pay for it, you will pay out the ass for for the next 15-20 years of your life
You may think it's common place to go to college. But college takes a lot of things... money, restraint, time, diligence, self-control... Going to college starts Freshman year of high-school. You begin prepping. You start racking up those good grades, building a GPA, building a list of extra curriculars, lining yourself up to take honors and AP classes, lining yourself up to get a high SAT score. Going to college starts 3 years before you even look at one. Then, junior or senior year you start looking at colleges that have the major you want to study. You start narrowing it down. You want to do reverse engineered biomedical studies. Who's got it? What does it take to get in? How expensive is it? You visit. You test. You pay to put in an application. Getting that letter of acceptance doesn't mean you are going to college- plenty of people get the letter and never go. They get hit with the bill, they don't get enough student aid, they can't get the loans. Some decide to go to community college and it's so much like high-school (heck, half their buddies from high school are there) that they forget there was ever a place to go away to and they decide to stick around. IT's EASIER. It's more FUN. It takes less effort. They become a regular around town. They become a "big-timer" in a small town.
If you do go away, many students have to leave after the 1st semester or 1st Year. If grades aren't high enough, scholarships go away. if performance on a team isn't up to par, scholarships go away. If your parents made more money(assuming they co-signed), financial aid goes away. If your parents made less money and are unable to co-sign, financial aid goes away. Lots of things can go wrong in that first year of being set free. The drop out rate is high
#2- move out of mom and dad's house (without higher education you can't get a high paying job and thus you cannot afford the expenses of living on your own.... and room mates actually suck after college)
#3- get married (can cost a good amount of money to do-but doesn't have to- and then you don't want to live at home with mom and dad and your new spouse...uh oh)
#4- settle down and have kids (again, hard to do at home with mom and dad and no money....)
#'s 2, 3, and 4 actually could entail home ownership, which our generation has no urge to invest time or money in because, let's face it, there's not so much money in their pockets anyway.
So cheers to 'Murica, where debt kills dreams.
But we are a nation who thrives on living beyond our means
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