Among the various things that my study-abroad experience gave me was a strong desire to continue exploring the world outside of my home state. As someone who chose to attend a college located less than two hours from the town that I grew up in, I was inspired by the opportunity to live in a place that is significantly different from what I’ve grown accustomed to. Although the fear of the challenging parts made me wary of going at first, finding out that I was capable of overcoming those challenges was beyond rewarding, and it ended up being one of my favorite things about my experience. Now, just one year and one month away from my Asbury graduation date, I’m facing a new challenge: deciding whether or not to leave my hometown after graduation.
Some of the people whom I’ve talked to have felt that it’s too early to be stressing out about it as much as I currently am (and they may be right), but it’s hard not to feel like the issue is pressing when people all around me are experiencing extreme difficulty with the job market.
A 2025 Fortune article said that “about 1.5 million more adults under 35 live with their parents than a decade ago.” In addition to the lack of entry-level job opportunities available right now, the article pointed out the effects of inflation on housing affordability, saying: “[O]ver the past decade, urban rents have climbed about 4% per year, while wages for full-time workers have increased by only 6% annually.” Getting a good, full-time job is only half the battle when it could easily still not be enough to cover the costs of living.
Moving home right after college is starting to feel like the only smart option, and I haven’t seen anything that suggests that these conditions will change for the better in the coming year.
The stigma around moving back home after college seems to be drastically lessening among fellow college students as our generation realizes what we’re up against. What has sometimes been deemed a sign of personal failure is now being recognized as a consequence of larger structural problems. This is definitely a good thing: stigmatizing the symptoms of larger issues does not help us to deal with the root cause. An increase in understanding for college students who move home after graduation has helped me to consider the pros of doing so with a more objective eye.
In the midst of endless articles about the financial benefits of moving home, however, I have also come across endless articles about the various benefits of moving away. A 2024 article by MoveAdvisor pointed out that the challenges and increased responsibilities that can come with moving out are also opportunities for necessary growth. In addition, being open to moving away allows for a broader job search and more potential opportunities, especially if jobs in your preferred field are not common.
Unfortunately, these opportunities come with a price tag, and the cycle of option-weighing continues.
For those of us who are weighing costs and benefits in this way, we are forced to ask ourselves to rank our priorities. What are we willing to sacrifice for financial security? For how long are we willing to make those sacrifices? What counts as financially secure to us? Is it enough to be paying all the bills but living paycheck to paycheck, or do we need a little more than that?
These are all questions with no correct general answer. There are many factors that go into each of our individual rankings of priorities, and each person has to decide for themselves. I wish that I could say that I’ve figured it out for myself, but I’m still entirely unsure.
What I do know is that there shouldn’t be any shame in either choice. There’s nothing wrong with making the money-conscious decision to move home after college. There’s also nothing wrong with recognizing that the opportunities that come with moving away outweigh the financial risks for yourself. The fact that many students have to choose between “smart” financial decisions and pursuing the opportunities that they want right after graduation is the result of problems much greater than any individual. This may not be the most comforting thing to hear for people who want to feel like they have complete control over their futures (like me), but accepting that I, as an individual, can only control so much is maybe not a bad lesson to learn in college.
All of this being said, we have some control over how we plan for the future. I may not know how lucky I’ll be when I start job-searching, but I do know how much money I can save each month right now. Regardless of how the next year pans out, I’m learning not to view either decision as a setback. Instead, I’m trying to remind myself that my challenges and circumstances don’t have to make me stagnant. Regardless of where I move after spring 2027, I’ll keep pushing forward in whatever ways I can, and for now, that’s just about all the answers I have.
