Selling kidneys for textbook money, becoming sugar babies to pay for rent, eating ramen for every meal, several weeks in a row: we’ve seen it all, we’ve heard it all, we’ve been through it all. The doom and gloom of these statements is offset by the carefree, “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” attitude. The identity of a broke student is so versatile and relatable that it is one of the most sympathised with, the most recognized, and the most all-encompassing. Is it justified though? Do we really struggle as much as we complain? Or maybe the self-deprecating humour and the go-with-the-flow nature of student life is one of the few coping mechanisms that we have when dealing with chronic financial insecurity?
A lot of our parents, grandparents, further family and older friends might think that the complaints come from a place of still very teenage and immature dissatisfaction with life. The boomer view of millennials as lazy and entitled seems to confirm this. Not having to go through the hardships that they had to go through must mean that life is easier. That any worries that young adults might have are insignificant and exaggerated, coming from boredom and the need for attention. Do we truly exaggerate our problems to seem more in touch with the woes of living in the real world?
Of course, internet humour is largely fuelled by drama. The statements we see on the problems will obviously be out of proportion and in some cases outlandish. But that is not because the problems that are the subject of those jokes are invented and need embellishment. That is just the nature of the humour. More widely, it is the nature of our coping mechanisms. Why would we need them though? Well, as studies show, nearly two thirds of undergraduate students run out of money before the end of the semester at least once. What might seem like an overdramatic complaint of lazy people gains much more dark clarity when you take into account the amount of students that live solely off their student loan throughout the year and the rising living costs. Not everyone can afford to depend just on the student loan, most students will also rely on help from parents or part-time jobs to supplement their loans. Not to mention those that do not get any financial help and have to scramble to get by on odd jobs and sparse savings.
In the situation of financial insecurity, you cannot afford material coping mechanisms like online shopping or binge drinking (although that is probably a positive aspect of it!). That is why that unified, fit-all identity of a broke student is such a popular joke to relate to. Why do we need it? Because we need to realize that our situations are not entirely in our control. The idea of personal responsibility for our unhappiness can be one of the most crushing realizations when you have countless new obligations in your new position as a student. The transition from the life financed by your parents to a life on your own without any safety nets is not something most of us were well prepared for, and it is reassuring to know that we are not the odd one out. Thinking of yourself as the impaired one, the one that can’t deal with something everyone else does, can be harmful and counterproductive. The value of the broke student is that it makes a crushing and sometimes unbearable situation seem like something temporary, a period in your life which you are bound to go through, but which ultimately will not get the best of you. It is easier to keep going through something so taxing when you know it is not a burden you bear alone.