Is the future I want even financially possible?

A soon-to-be college freshman wonders what awaits in modern uncertainty.

By Kayla Williams

Contributor to The Truth OC

The first 18 years of your life is like existing on a free trial.

I don’t remember where I heard that perspective, but it has stuck with me. For many people, over the course of those first 18 years you live with your parents or a guardian and food, utilities and insurance are paid for. Of course, this is not applicable to everyone—but it is for many.

Including myself.

I have been forced to acknowledge the fact that my free trial is almost over. Up until now, I had shoved the thought deep into my subconscious in order to spare me the stress and anxiety that comes with its acknowledgment (which now I must endure). Because, unlike my premium Spotify subscription (a lifeline some might say), I can’t choose whether or not to subscribe to adulthood. It isn’t optional, it’s forced.

Now, I must question whether or not I’ll be lucky enough to afford it.

Growing up, adulthood seems pretty straightforward. Go to college. Get a job. Rent an apartment. Save up, buy a house. Maybe start a family. It seemed like a natural progression where completing one step led easily to the next. At some point this may have been true. Unfortunately, that path is now stupidly complicated and much less certain as each step comes with a big fat warning label.

That college you wanted to attend? $60,000 a year. Seriously? But no it’s okay—you can take out a loan! It’ll only take you years to pay back.

That job you spent years preparing for? It might require years of experience you were supposed to somehow get before you even entered the workforce.

Oh! Don’t forget about that apartment you wanted to rent. You can probably find one. But wait … the rent just went up again? Yeah of course it did. Because of the never-ending increase in housing prices.It’s absolutely ridiculous. Then it becomes painfully clear why buying a house is something many young adults cannot realistically afford until later in life.

For many graduates, this means moving back in with their parents—a decision once viewed as embarrassing or a sign of lacking ambition. In today’s reality, this has become a financial necessity. All because they cannot afford the American subscription to adulthood.

Somewhere along the way, the goalposts moved. If I could drag them back to where they once stood with all the strength of my frustration, I would. Because I want to return to the time where I once felt like adulthood is the next exciting chapter I was waiting for.

When I was a kindergartener, I wanted to be a vet. Back then, my biggest career concern was realizing that being a veterinarian meant having to perform surgeries—which, in my head, meant cutting open animals.

Now—as I prepare for my freshman year of college—my concerns have shifted from bloody animals to whether the future I want is even financially possible. Becoming an adult was supposed to feel like a new adventure that I am finally old enough to begin.

Instead, it feels like a crazy financial obstacle course full of uncertainty. Instead of wondering what color comforter I should buy for my dorm, I find myself wondering if the degree I will receive four years from now will even be worth what I paid for it. I’m excited to go to college, but I’m so unbelievably terrified to graduate from it.

Despite the obstacles, I still believe that hard work can build a future I’m proud of. I just hope that America still rewards that kind of hard work. I don’t expect America to hand me success.

I want to believe that the country I am entering adulthood in will allow the future I am working toward to be possible.

Kayla Williams is a recent Aliso Niguel High grad. She begins her freshman year at Arizona State in August. You can follow her on Instagram here.