My mom and I graduated from college in the same year. I was 23, and she was in her late 40s.

I grew up believing that I had to activity hard, go to college, get a part of paper, and unlock a decent life. My mom believed in it equal additional than I did.

In May 2026, we traversed the complete row together. I was 23, graduating from New York University alongside a flat in Film and Television, prepared to initiate a occupation in reporting and filmmaking. My mom was in her delayed 40s whenever she earned her bachelor's flat in psychology following decades of putting her existence on hold.

My mom raised me during taking attention of family members

For as lengthy as I can remember, my mom has been operating on empty. Back in Alabama, she worked hospital shifts by day and cleaned company offices at night, riding community buses through the heat. She was additionally raising my brother and me, caring for my grandma through cancer, and looking following my paralyzed uncle. Going to university felt impossible.

When my grandma and uncle died shortly before I completed elevated academy in 2022, our family was grieving. But my mom additionally had a instant to think concerning what she wanted for herself. She decided to commencement university and prosecute her behavioral discipline degree. In 2024, following my brother graduated from elevated academy and headed to university in upstate New York, my mom packed up and moved out of Alabama. She settled in Albany to be nearer to the two of us. I was living in New York City, attending NYU.

From 2022 to 2026, we the two worked toward our degrees. While I stayed up finishing university assignments, my mom stable her nursing shifts alongside classes and the expenses of construction a new existence in Albany.

But graduating didn't create the next steps any easier.

Getting a job as a latest alumnus wasn't easy

I idea an NYU degree would provision me a genuine ft in the door. Instead, I entered a job market anywhere entry-level roles demanded years of experience, during rent and groceries kept getting additional expensive. I've had employers inform me during interviews that they loved my activity and idea I'd be a awesome fit, lone to never comprehend from them again. It happened additional than once, and all time, it became harder not to amazement what I was doing wrong.

The numbers propose I wasn't alone. In the second fourth of 2026, 42% of latest university graduates were underemployed, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Finishing academy didn't justify a career. For many graduates, it meant entering a crowded job market and expecting person would provision them a chance.

My mom faced her own type of that wall. She's currently operating toward her master's degree, expecting to eventually rotate into a licensed therapist. In the meantime, she's been trying to get her ft in the entrance through entry-level jobs specified as behavioral health or psychiatric technician roles. Despite decades of frontline healthcare cognition and a bachelor's flat in psychology, applications went unanswered, and automated rejection emails kept arriving. After years of operating and caring for others, she was motionless struggling to get person to provision her a chance.

A few weeks following graduation, I sat alongside her in her living area as she refreshed her inbox. Another rejection came in. She closed her laptop and looked downward at her framed diploma, exhausted.

If my mom was struggling to discover activity following everything she'd done, I couldn't assistance wondering what my own flat would do for me. A flat can motionless create a financial difference.

In 2025, full-time workers old 25 and older alongside a bachelor's flat earned a median weekly pay of $1,578, compared alongside $966 for those alongside a elevated academy diploma, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. But those figures depict group who are already operating complete time. They don't justify a latest alumnus volition district a job, acquire those wages, or oversee to live in the city anywhere they're trying to build a career.

For my mom, university was expected to rewrite her story. For me, it was expected to be the launchpad. When we appearance at our graduation pictures, the pride is real; neither of us volition always downplay what it took to last those years. But a certificate can't pay rent. A part of document can't buy health insurance, a stable job, or harmony of mind.

My mom and I did what we were told would guide to a improved life. We're motionless trying to fig out whenever that existence is expected to begin.

We did everything right. Somehow, it doesn't awareness akin adequate anymore.