Chris and Joel
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – One of the small quirks in my family is this: my youngest children are twins, born three minutes apart. Yet they will graduate from high school a year apart. One of the twins, Joel Mario, is so interested in getting into ‘the real world’ that he’s graduated a year early.
It’s probably a mistake, and I’ve told him as much. Not every 17-year-old listens to their Dad.
“So you’d like to begin paying bills, rent, and taxes a year earlier?” I’d chided him. “No prom or carefree summer with your friends for you?”
Actually, I understand. I began working in radio stations when I was 15. For years I was always ‘the kid.’ I longed for the adult part of my life to begin. Now, from my perspective as a 53-year-old, I’d welcome an extra year of less responsibility. My advice to younger me would be to savor the few fleeting months between school years, because once you enter the real world it’s a grind that will last for decades. And no one knows what our lives – our health, our finances, our families – will look like when we reach life’s next milepost, retirement.
And entering the real world is more difficult today. When I entered the working world, my rent was $300 a month. My salary, in income tax-free New Hampshire, was $325 a week. I was unmarried, no kids. And while I didn’t have a lot, I had enough money for everything I wanted. A new graduate today can’t find a rent below $800 and could have a car payment that’s half of that. And while there are jobs available, there’s no entry-level work that makes those ends meet. New arrivals in the adult world today face grinding inflation, and need to find a roommate unless they’re content living in mom or dad’s basement. God help you if you have a college loan to pay off too.
For some, the light at the end of the tunnel is the real world. Hopefully it’s not a locomotive that’s coming right at you.
Chris Conley
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