By Angela Perry
The summer when I was 17, I spent an entire day memorizing the words to R.E.M.’s song It’s The End Of The World, and I’m still able to sing them with some accuracy at late night dive bar karaoke. I share this not to brag, nor to reveal how much free time my 17-year-old self had on her hands, but because that song has been playing in my head the last few weeks on repeat. You see, I am about to begin my last year of law school, and I have no idea what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.
I have been a career academic for the last decade, first getting my BA in 2008, then a Master’s in 2010, and now I’m rounding it out with a JD in 2014. I thought that all my education would make me super employable, but every graduation seems to deposit me in a worse job market than the last. Law seems to have been a particularly bad choice in terms of job prospects: despite the fact that most people think of law as a sure-fire ticket to middle class comfort, it turns out that the profession has undergone some serious changes in the last 15 years, and there simply aren’t enough jobs for the number of students graduating from law school.
Without question, young people all over the country are facing these hard facts:
- The unemployment rate for young Americans under 25 is twice that of the general population
- Less than half of young people are working, a smaller proportion than at any time since WWII
- Young people of color face the greatest challenges.
But as someone who is closer to 30 than to 20, I am especially beginning to feel the pressure to get a job. In an over-saturated profession, in an already bad job market, and carrying more than $100,000 in debt, I’ll admit to being a little apprehensive about all this grown up business.
It’s a difficult time for young people, and we’re facing challenges that previous generations haven’t confronted. As one author said, in previous generations receiving a BA made the world your oyster; “[f]or millennials with a degree, the world is a ‘bad lobster in a dark cellar.’” And especially for “boomerang” millennials like me, it can feel like insult has been added to injury. With only a year left in school, and no real light at the end of the tunnel, it really does feel like it’s the end of the world. At the end of the day, I’m left asking the same question so many other young people are asking: We’re here, so what do we do now?
Young Invincibles was started so people like you and me could share these types of stories, because our voices are stronger together. Have your own story to share? YI wants to hear it.