Twixters in Fix: Money & Expectations Leave 20-Somethings Trapped

RALEIGH, N.C. — Craig Powell knows he’s in a professional no-man’s land. At 24, he has a degree in English from the University of Florida and a job at a Raleigh used bookstore. The job is OK, but it’s not exactly a calling. The problem is Powell doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. “I need to go back to school. The degree I have isn’t something I can market myself with,” he says. He’s struggling to make up his mind.

Law school seemed to be an option, but he just can’t see himself being a lawyer for the next 50 years. “I want to do something eventually because I want a home and I want a family,” he says.

There’s a new identity crisis brewing out there, and this one doesn’t involve sports cars or blond secretaries. Today’s 20-somethings, it seems, are having a tough enough time just growing up. Observers have dubbed them “twixters,” young people caught between adolescence and adulthood. Sure, the young have been unfocused for generations. But twixters aren’t just procrastinators, says author Alexandra Robbins, they have some real issues.

Robbins, who wrote “Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis,” attributes twixter angst to several big societal shifts.College tuitions are spiraling, creating out-of-control student debt. For the first time, average tuition at the nation’s postsecondary institutions last year reached $20,000 for a private college, $5,000 for a public university and $2,000 for a two-year college, according to a survey by the College Board. At the same time, colleges pump out more graduates than ever — in 2003, 27 percent of American adults age 25 and older had a college degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a record high total.

That’s made the job market more competitive than ever. So many end up moving back in with mom and dad for extended stays. Almost 16 million American families had at least one child over 18 living at home in 2003. That’s up 13 percent since 1985, according to the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey.

To make matters stickier, some of these cash-strapped young adults are paralyzed with career indecision. “One of the biggest questions of this generation is we’re worried we might not be able to figure out what we want in the first place,” Robbins says.

Looking for Work

Unrealistic expectations for early success don’t help. The media is flooded with images of high school grads bound for the NBA. Singer Beyonce Knowles lights up the screen at the tender age of 23. High-tech whiz kids turn CEO before 30.

“If we haven’t achieved something magnificent by age 25, we’re already over the hill,” says Robbins, 27.At the same time, though, twixters want meaningful work. They're fixated on finding the “right” job. Something that's going to offer them emotional, as well as financial, rewards, Robbins says.

“A lot of my friends are in the same position I’m in. They’re working but don’t know exactly what to do,” says Crystal Nieto, 20, of Raleigh.

Nieto did two years at Wake Technical Community College. First she chose Internet technology as a major, but switched to arts after one year.

“I just didn't want to do it for the rest of my life,” she says.But arts only lasted a year, too. She left Wake Tech. She’s working as a receptionist, saving money and considering esthetician (skin care) school.

Her parents are supportive. “They know I’m eventually going to do something,” Nieto says.John DeMartino, 22, graduated from college in 2003 with a political science degree. He is doing something. He's just not sure it's the right thing.

DeMartino is working in the marketing department of A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, mostly handling administrative tasks.While he considers the experience valuable, he nonetheless describes this phase of his life as “pre-professional” and “drifting.”

“I’m torn,” he says. “For the first time I can see how I could keep doing this and it wouldn't be awful ... at the same time it wouldn’t be completely fulfilling.”

Panic Sets In

And is complete work fulfillment necessary if you're fulfilled in other areas of your life? At Lifescapes Counseling Associates in Apex, N.C., social worker Beth Bowers hears thoughts like these working with floundering 20-somethings.“I see panic. What am I going to do? I can't figure it out. What’s going to make money?” she says.

Financial reality often forces a decision. College grads fall into careers rather than choose them, to get on with other areas of their lives, such as buying homes and starting families.

“You're kind of stuck. You have to work with what you have,” Bowers says. "There's not that dream of everybody can grow up and be president anymore. You’ve got to figure out what you want.”If you are fortunate enough to figure it out, you still have to pay for the education to get you there.For most students, this means financial aid and debt. Today’s undergraduate accumulates $19,000-$22,000 in college loan debt, according to the United States Student Association, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group.

Still despite the hardship of the twixter lifestyle, Robbins, like some social scientists, sees a positive side to the delaying of adulthood.

“Previous generations jumped into this stuff and then regretted it 20 years later. That’s not going to happen to us," she says. “My generation wants to be able to figure out our core identity issues now so that by the time we’re middle aged, we’re not going to have a midlife crisis.”

© 2005 Raleigh News & Observer