LIM College

Should kids our age be worried about the economy? And how much longer should it be allowable to refer to our generation as "kids?" These are just a couple questions that are growing increasingly louder in my head as the death march known as graduation looms closer.

Sure, we complain about homework and finals and the indignity of waking up for 8 a.m. classes. But the reality of the situation is that we have it pretty good right now (stop rolling your eyes). I know I can’t speak for everyone, but most of us are still being supported by our parents, while the money from our part-time jobs more often goes to the bartender at Greenhouse than to Con-Edison. My worry is that I won’t be able to maintain my pseudo-fabulous lifestyle and financially-unburdened ways after my diploma is handed to me.

The current economic climate, whose weakness is becoming more and more obvious (Vogue has been thinner than ever lately, and not in a good way) is doing little to calm my fears. I’ve already gotten a taste of what it’s like to be “let go” (the workplace equivalent of “It’s not you, it’s me.”) when a paid internship at Barneys ended early due to budget cuts and a corporate internship at Condé Nast ended when the magazine where I interned shut down. I can’t lie: it scared the hell out of me. And if I am scared, with no family to support and no real bills to pay, I can’t imagine the wreck I’ll be as a post-grad professional, when mommy-dearest ceases payment on my studio (and phone, heat, cable, and food).

I admit my ignorance when it comes to details of the economy (I bet you don’t know what NASDAQ stands for either). Yet the alarming thing is that the affects of the economy are creeping into almost everyone’s everyday life. It’s not just black and white headlines anymore. We’re being forced to look at the trouble, read about it, and watch it even as students. Will the downturn be over by the time I graduate? Will I be able to find a job that doesn’t require a time card? Will I still be able to afford drinks at Greenhouse come May? Only time will tell, I suppose. For now, we’ll just have to enjoy the fact that we’re still young and hope that the economy will some day allow us to maintain the same daddy-endorsed lifestyle to which we’ve become accustomed--minus the whole homework thing.

-- Alexander Channell

Further reading:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/18/economy.college.students/index.html
 
http://internships.about.com/b/2008/08/24/slow-economy-affecting-college-students.htm
 
http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/careers/unemployment_rate_at_five_year_high_240/