Apparently, I am a rare bird, being a native-born Mainer and a millennial who also reads the entire newspaper every day (yes, on my smartphone!). I would like to let the baby boomers and the Greatest Generation and, maybe, even Generation X know the non-avocado-related struggles we millennial Mainers face.
I have $68,000 in student loan debt. I make $13.75 an hour in a field completely unrelated to my master’s degree.
Yes, I live with my parents. My father is going through treatment for Stage 4 melanoma. Yes, that’s a cancer. Please use sunscreen, all the time. My mother, the family’s appointed breadwinner, is a novelist, with a career subject to the whims of the market. My income ($13.75 an hour, remember) is keeping my family afloat, so we can buy silly things like gas and groceries.
I wish I could buy a house – just a small one, enough to fit me and a few pets. I wish I could invest in my community like that; I wish I could slowly build wealth while I am still young enough to pull 40-hour work weeks. But I can’t.
I was told that getting a master’s degree in a field that I am passionate about and talented in would guarantee me a financially stable, middle-class life. It hasn’t. It won’t, since my talents and skills are not in science, technology, engineering or math fields.
I don’t want pity; I don’t need charity. Avocado toast is healthy and delicious. Just, please, the next time you want to complain about my generation – maybe, don’t.
Also, it would be nice if you all voted for senators and representatives who kept birth control easily accessible, because there is no way millennial Mainers like me can afford a child.
Victoria Hugo-Vidal
Buxton
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