By snoadmin
I don’t live with typical college roommates. There’s the married couple, their daughter and a Northern California native I met here on campus. Our 3-bedroom house is not the biggest casa in the world but, because I’m rarely there, we’re not in each other’s way too often.
The husband is pretty laid back. He does most of the cooking. The wife loves doing yard work. Now, don’t read too much into it because it’s not as though they care about gender politics and want to be fair with each other. Cooking just happens to be his passion and she loves doing the yard work.
Oh, and they’re my parents too.
Given the fact that I’ve got to pay for college via my own wallet, we’ve got a pretty cool arrangement at the Salgado household. Rent is cheap — yes I do pay to live at home because I wouldn’t want to be a parent-smoocher — and I get to eat home cooked meals at least twice a week.
For many students, admitting they live with their parents once they’ve passed the legal drinking age can be a little bit embarrassing.
When people ask me about my living arrangement — why do complete strangers like asking about living arrangements anyway? — I tell them I have roommates. I’m not really lying. We live in the same house, which makes them my roommates.
If the moment seems appropriate, say when I’ve had a few too many, I tell them that Marcos and Esperanza are actually my parents; who probably wouldn’t be too happy I was calling them by their first names. Not surprisingly, this “boomerang trend” is on the rise thanks in part to our current economic boo-boos.
It’s not just students having to admit they’re living with their parents. Grown adults, who once had a place of their own after college, are flying back home due to the recession. According to a recent Washington Post article, 30 percent of people ages 18 to 34 are living at home. Some probably never moved out, but 16 percent did and moved right back before they hit 35.
There’s a strange stigma that comes with being over a certain age and living with your parents. College is supposed to be a time when you let loose of any parental supervision and “find yourself.” If you don’t meet that goal by the time you’ve at least graduated college, you are doomed.
With jobs in our chosen major lacking, what is a future freelance writer to do? Work for free?
Over the summer, I interned for KPFK Radio. I somehow managed to be on the air and produce entire hour-long shows. They’re like a close-knit family, who feed each other and obsess over social justice issues. My kind of place.
Sure, I didn’t earn a penny for my time at KPFK, but I was doing something I am passionate about and I was pushed to perform to the best of my abilities.
I don’t know why, but it’s always going to be embarrassing to say you’re still living at home. I guess you can say it’s not sexy, but at least I won’t have any student loans when I graduate. Or whatever.
-Julio Salgado
