With the coming of finals, and the holidays approaching, the pressure is on. Everyone is feeling it, not just students. Adults everywhere have been thrown in the gauntlet for the next month, and the Centurion is no different.

It’s not always journalism students submitting content for the newspaper. We receive articles from students all over campus, and we even receive requests for us to cover events. We count on the students, faculty, and college administration to deliver on content that is worthy of being presented in print-form for everyone to see.

Both for myself, and the rest of the staff here at the Centurion, we find ourselves struggling for stories to bring to the students. The pulse of the world and the concepts that the average college students are finding “captivating” tend to be two completely different things.

There has been no shortage of world news: Nelson Mandela’s death, Obamacare, radioactive materials in Mexico and train derailments in New York. Aside from that, there are all the other things people from our “millennial” generation have to be concerned about: leaking radioactive water in Japan, the “global warming” question, LGBT equality, the ongoing war in the middle-east that was supposed to be over and the increase to the minimum wage that everyone has been waiting on for almost a half a decade.

As an editor and someone who is exposed to the public opinion frequently, I have noticed that the majority of people at Bucks don’t pay a lot of these issues any attention. You might see some inspiring posts on Facebook about Mandela’s death, but how many people understand the amount of impact this actually has on South Africa? As an editor in a small American newspaper, I struggle to even comprehend that, and I can imagine most people follow this event as some kind of trend.

Most people at this school have different concerns. People’s minds are filled with desires for video games and clothing. The hottest items of the year are turning out to be expensive tech items: tablets, smart phones, watches and high-definition televisions just outline a few of the high-ticket items people have on their minds. And don’t even start with the PS4 / Xbox One debate or you’re liable to start a small riot.

However, the minimum wage is still 7.25. According to the Associated Press in August, 77 percent of jobs created this year were part-time. With these issues alive and well, how many of us can actually afford these items? Many already worry about college tuitions, children, rent and insurance.

Young adults and college students are looking at paying for these items in the form of credit and debt. We find ourselves paying for things we can’t afford long after we’ve stopped enjoying them. Respectfully, we’ve inherited our tendency to do this from our parents and a few of the earlier generations, as we’re seeing with the struggling housing market, increasing taxes and the painful future of Social Security.

This being said, the amount of debt we are still accruing, and the life of employment servitude we are earning ourselves with our college degrees costing us thousands of dollars, is unfortunately the last thing on the community’s mind, especially during this time of year.

Instead we find ourselves worrying about TV shows; People want to see Matt Schuler and his performance on television. People mourn the deaths of celebrities such as Paul Walker and find themselves forgetting that there are more pressing things in the world and their own lives for them to be worried about.

Grades, school, and employment dominate many of our lives aside from that, causing us even more stress. Most of us lead jobs that are unfulfilling, which is why we pursue degrees in the first place. Most people pine and sigh about their work load, but the painful truth is that these degrees are ensuring that we can afford to pay off these high-ticket items we desire so dearly.

It’s important that during this time of the year, we reflect on the past year, and don’t let ourselves become caught up in the popular media and the irrational voracity for material possessions. Students should be focusing on their own lives and the world around them, or else the things they complain about will become exponentially worse as they grow older.

Questions or comments for the editors?  Send them to [email protected].