In an era where the cost of living grows exponentially and the imminent cloud of student debt scares college students daily, how can a student be expected to survive without a side job. Though most high schoolers only work during the summers, it’s almost expected that you work year round during college.

While most employers are kind to students and allow flexible hours; it can still be difficult to pack a 12-hour work week into an already crammed finals week. Co-workers of mine have showed up to a six hour shift after spending eight hours in the library, only to plan on returning once their shift finishes.

Is that what it takes to survive the 21st century? For a generation deemed “lazy” by our elders, the bar has been set so high that exceeding it can look nearly impossible to a broke, tired, stressed college student.

But that’s what you have to do to survive. Unless you’ve been blessed with generational money to cover college, or have worked hard enough to earn considerable merit based scholarships, the expenses of college compared to the rewards can look bleak.

Decades ago a high school graduate could survive without a degree, and we wouldn’t be hearing about it in the news. People cite success stories such as Zuckerberg, a college dropout, to inspire us. While, yes, Mark Zuckerberg did drop out, he dropped out of Harvard, people…Harvard.

In today’s world, college-educated graduates can struggle to find jobs in their fields. Imagine studying something for four years just to work a desk job in some corporation. Sadly, that’s our likely reality.

Despite proving our work ethic, grinding through college, work, and life itself, we’ll always be the lazy generation, the soft generation. Owning a home anywhere besides Wyoming is a longshot, but our lack of income will never be due to our lack of education.

There’s no individual to blame for this, no scapegoat for our issues, but collectively we must find a common ground of allowing college students to fill roles in growing industries, roles they studied to fulfill. Out of necessity, college students work harder than any other demographic, wouldn’t an employer find that trait admirable?