Under Pressure: It's 2k16 and Millennials Are Over Higher Education

From the time we are children, we are conditioned toward higher education whether we desire it or not. As a child, my interests in the natural world and science were fostered; I am lucky enough to have been encouraged into higher education without being forced into it. Perhaps this can be attributed to the frequency with which members of my family have been highly educated; perhaps it can be attributed to sheer luck, or an understanding environment. In any case, many my age are not as lucky.

As Millennials, we exist in a very interesting position in terms of society and values. Our education and childhood from the 1990s and 2000s instilled in us values from a time before our childhood, filling us with standards and cultural mores which we attempt to live up to. However, these values have not served us well. Our ideals are not built for us; specifically, unlike the next generation, which has grown up in the shadow of the recession, we did not. For a significant portion of our lives, we were raised with the belief that our education and hard work would create a comfortable life for us. The economic crisis of 2008 shattered the new MTV generation's ability to fulfill these goals. Unlike the children born in the 2000s, we were not raised with the disappointment of knowing that our education may very well be obsolete by the time we graduate or that our parents will live a better life than we will. While surely we have the advantage of social media and smart technology, that is not enough to replace opportunity. Our upbringing has placed us in a precarious situation: choose not to pursue an education due to uncertainty, or pursue an education, putting oneself in emotional and economic duress pursuing a position we may not gain.

Millennials currently pay a high price for tuition, with many students taking on debt in order to finance their possible social mobility or success. According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 71% of those who graduate with a bachelor's degree will have taken out student loans. If that isn't alarming, the Huffington Post reports that collectively, student-held debt is at a high of $1.5 trillion. Contrast my former English teacher in high school, who graduated in the 1980s and, unable to find a teaching position, found a fast food position and still paid her student loans within a few years, to many of my friends who will graduate with over $100,000 of student loans to pay room and board and their tuition. Add impending debt to the scarcity of success in the job market, and you have a recipe for disaster. Many of my peers are disillusioned; many times, I've heard friends and other students talk about how scared they are to graduate because they "do not have any money, and will not be able to pay [their] loans back even with a job.” That's frightening, but we are almost obligated to attend school. Despite the long standing proclamation in which we state we view all with respect, regardless of situation, we do not. The Millennial education crisis is actually a brilliant display of insidious classism: while taught that even janitors deserve respect, how often do we scold children who wish to become janitors? When did we last hear a child tell a parent of their desire to become a bus driver or a mechanic and not automatically think of a classist notion?

In truth, Millennials are becoming drained due to lack of opportunity despite education. Additionally, we are drained due to the inescapable verbal abuse we would receive if Millennials pursued their true passions, which may not include higher education. There are plenty of engineering students who may want to become electricians, but pursue the former path due to societal conditioning to believe that while essential, the latter is less meaningful. Rather than see Millennial frustration as apathy, we as a nation need to open our eyes and realize that perhaps we were not fully equipped to deal with the challenges before us; instead, we must be treated as human beings who were molded into something we cannot be and are unhappy.

Nijah Glenn is a third year biology major, a TMC intern, and a member of the NewPeople Editorial Collective.

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