- What are your hopes and fears for the future?
As a final-year university student, my main hope for the immediate future is to get a job. I am still not yet 100% sure about what I would like my career to look like long-term, but at the moment I am just applying for jobs that I think I might enjoy and have a good chance of getting. While my current plan is to move back to my parents’ home immediately after graduation, I am also hoping to move out in the near future, but the specifics of that will depend on when I find a job and where it is based.
As for fears for the future, my main fear is that the cost of living will continue to rise so much that the things that were possible for previous generations (e.g. owning a home, starting a family, etc.) will become more and more unaffordable. If I do ever start a family, I worry about the consequences that climate change might have on my children and grandchildren. I also worry about the impact of artificial intelligence in terms of things like job losses and disinformation.
- What changes would you like to happen to have a better life? (Consider the current situation with schools, universities, jobs, housing, training, and the government.)
I think something that a lot of young adults are worried about is rising rent costs, particularly in places like London, and so it would be good if something could be done to keep this under control, whether through legislation or building more housing. I also think that while public transport within individual cities like London and Manchester tends to be quite good, I think that there is still room for improvement in terms of inter-city transport. For example, many train tickets are still very expensive; in some cases, it is cheaper to fly to another country than to travel between two British cities via train. I think that recent graduates in particular would find cheaper train tickets really beneficial, as after university they will find that many of their friends live in different cities across the country, so it will allow them to maintain healthy social lives, which is vital for mental health.
- How are you involved in making decisions about what matters to you? (how you spend your time, free time, school/college/uni, public spaces, jobs, family, housing)
The main way I get involved in decisions is through voting, in both local and general elections. At university, I also vote in elections for our Student Union and other student organisations. Every so often my university will send out surveys asking for students’ opinions about our courses, so sometimes I respond to those.
