Lately, I’ve been thinking about what world lies beyond Sinclair, emotionally and developmentally for my life as a person and employee.
What’s the next stage to everything?
I’ve been looking into colleges for the spring, I’ve also been going out and dating. I’ve been touching up my resume and tightening my portfolio for my daily job hunting to hopefully put a little more into the bank for when I transfer.
I find myself in a similar situation to many millenials. I’m not far from hitting twenty-three while pursuing an education or career.
Even if career feelings have changed over time, what hasn’t changed is that I want to be able to have a nice enough life with someone I care about.
I want a family, even if whoever I’m with and I don’t choose to adopt. I want to be able to support them and my existing family when they are in need.
I don’t want to burden everyone working a low wage and not being capable of bolstering our union.
Many degree graduates from Sinclair still have a long way to go. I might have a long while left, too.
We can have years after years left on our educational journeys to get credentials to land a decent paying job. While that’s just life, I’m worried the United States is at an impasse.
Higher education is now a much stricter requirement for the ‘entry’ level employment arena. I don’t believe there are no jobs out there, there certainly are. However, many are not that which you can have a family with.
That worries me. Millennials, quite frankly, do not live up to older generations’ stereotypes of promiscuity. We’re not having families or getting married.
We usually require more incomes than a nuclear family unit can provide to actually give our children more than a ‘good luck and get out’ when they turn 18.
If everyone must go to college to be able to make any college doable for their children, won’t that impact families?
Even Sinclair’s tuition and fees increased. That fee increase came with a second levy increase, too. I don’t feel like there’s an incentive to have a family. Nowadays, people just opt for dogs. That has consequences.
Many areas in Dayton struggle to give their children more than the bare bones. I’d hope we aren’t ignorant to the hungry children and our opioid epidemic. What does that mean for the future?
It could mean many things. We could see a decline in quality of life. With that decline we will also see exacerbated class conflicts. What amount of unique social cohesion Dayton has could be shaken up in as little as a generation.
People are more than married to their careers now. They’re married to their debt–and their career. That’s polygamy.
Does the United States want those that want to help lead the country in industry and every field to be overcome by the weight of dollar signs?
If the pathway to keep the United States among the world powers in the marketplace is one that is also not good for our families, we will encounter massive lifestyle changes.
We’ll lose a large part of the American dream. If we switch to a trade skills society, we won’t be burdened by the debt of trying to place America on top. However, we’ll lose control of our economy.
Foreign countries have long keyed into our education system’s advantages to bolster their countries. They’ve played the game the United States offers. Meanwhile, we are often scorned for it while we greatly benefit the international education community.
Why then, do we not focus on our citizen’s futures most? Universities like the University of Dayton and Wright State have happily welcomed, for great monetary gain, large percentages of foreign students.
The next step for American students, at this point, is to become like that of countries which make use of America’s opportunity. What does that say for the state of American education? Where only the rich or those that check the most boxes will access that mobility?
Will we be sending our children outside our own country to try and make a life for those that remain?
While I’m hoping not, perhaps it is time for American college students to wake up.
Now is the time to fight for what you want with every tooth and nail you have at your disposal. If you don’t take every opportunity you have here and run with it, you’re welcoming someone to come take it from you.
Barton Kleen
Executive Editor