Unlike our parents and politicians who had the luxury of free education and affordable housing, us students are confronted with sky-high rent and the soul-sucking blight on our sanity that is Centrelink. Not to mention that penalty rates are dead and uni fees are set to rise.

If you’re studying in 2017, we commiserate with you. You’ve chosen a hard path to walk down, friend.

Centrelink Messes With Us

There’s a reason that the two-minute noodle, dumpster diving student stereotype exists. Most of us are struggling to get by financially, with the conundrum of affording an education while trying to ace courses and complete internships (FOR FREE!) on the side.

Then enters Centrelink and the golden promise of Youth Allowance. Like a bitter ex, I can tell you it doesn’t take long for the honeymoon period to end.

There are times when Centrelink will decide to dump you via text for no apparent reason and you’ll have to figure out how to pay the bills while they get their shit together. They’ll ghost you when you call the hotline, or better yet, play classical music for an hour and a half until you get through to someone.

Once the gaslighting saga has ended, you’ll divorce Centrelink like everybody does. But with many students caught up in the robo-debt scandal, we can only hope that you come out unscathed.

Housing’s A Bitch

Maybe I’ve been ordering too many smashed avos for breakfast, but buying a house doesn’t seem like a realistic goal for this lifetime. Especially for the likes of us living in Melbourne and Sydney.

Before you tell us to go rural, take a guess at how many houses our average federal pollie has? Yep, 2.4 each or a staggering 524 homes between 226 politicians.

Meanwhile, Turnbull, who owns a harbourside mansion in Point Piper, reckons our parents should “shell out” to help us buy a home.

So get used to living with your parents, if you’re lucky enough to have ones that live near your uni – chances are you’ll be stuck there until you’re 30.

Uni Fees Are Set To Rise

For some bizarre reason, the gov decided to make us their target in this year’s budget, revealing that university fees will increase 1.8 per cent next year and by 7.5 cent by 2022. According to the ABC, this means students will have to pay an extra $2,000 to $3,600 for a four-year course.

They also announced we’ll have to repay our HECS debt at a lower income level. It means a change from $55,000 to $42,000 from July next year. Way to kick us while we’re down.

And I guess they assume students are lazy sods who need to work harder because the government decided to kill penalty rates, leaving us with an estimated reduction of $6,000 a year for workers.

The Truth About Our Generation

We can’t let mainstream media or our ancient pollies get us down. The reality is that Gen Y is smart and qualified, not the lazy, entitled generation that some would have us believe.

We drink less and take fewer drugs than our parents did, and studies show that we value happiness and job satisfaction over cash flow.

We’re smashing goals! Just look at Malala Yousafzai, a 20-year-old activist who literally got shot in the head by the Taliban and continues to campaign for women’s rights and education. Then there’s an even younger generation of people doing incredible things. Seven-year-old Zora Ball is the youngest person to create a mobile video game. Or Melati and Isabel Wijsen, two teenagers who met with the Governor of Bali and forced him to consider banning plastic bags on the island.

In the face of challenging circumstances, we’re rising up and doing incredible things. Baby boomers oughta check themselves.

Eden Gillespie is an International Studies/Media student at UNSW with a love for breakfast bagels and Louis Theroux.