Dear Supreme Court of the United States,

I am confused with your judgement in regards to internships.

As a rising sophomore in college, the amount of financial debt that looms over my head from attending a first-tier, prestigious institution gets heavier and heavier everyday. Couple that with the diminishing job market and the stigma surrounding an unstable, global economy (can we just reflect on Greece and China?). Also take into consideration that I am only 19 and still value my Instagram photos of latte art more than any stock market. Basically, I am stuck in this weird limbo of trying to be an adult, not really wanting to, but approaching some turbulence.

Put yourself in my shoes.

You are an intern at a PR firm in New York City this summer. Unpaid. New York City is one of the most expensive places to live, but it's also one of the most saturated places for hopeful internees to score an internship. Unpaid. The office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You are so eager to learn, to be taken seriously, and be one step closer to your dream, for eight hours a day, you have to resign from being an actual human with feelings and submit yourself to the title of unpaid intern.

Lunch time. Finding lunch under $10 in NYC is a game you like to play everyday around 2 p.m. Most of the time, you end up not getting anything because, remember, you aren't being paid. Come back to your desk and continue your PowerPoint adventures until end of day. Remember to email your boss your EOD summary and make sure to grab the 6:05 p.m. N train to Penn Station or else you will miss your 6:29 p.m. NJ Transit train home.

Repeat three times a week. Add in working a part-time retail job also eight hours a day, three times a week to balance the cost of train tickets, subway rides, and lunch-time nightmares in the city.

You can try to deny this, but I personally believe even breathing in New York costs money. Yet that's where a lot of internships are, in every industry. How can you expect a college student, who is already under a lot of financial stress due to the not-so-obvious increasing cost of college, to sustain any sort of ability to accept a full-time unpaid internship that would generally be in an expensive area? Think: D.C., Boston, NYC, or LA.

How can you expect me to choose between following my professional dreams and not being in a financial crisis? You say that it has to relate to my education, but how can that even be valid when education is getting further and further out of financial reach of young adults?

I worked hard in high school and cried over the ACTs to get into a good college. Down $65K, I now attend a world-recognized school to hopefully help me land a better job post-graduation. To land said better job post-graduation, I need experience on my resume. To get experience on my resume, I need a few internships. However, this is where a problem incurs. The $65K loan won't pay itself, and neither will an unpaid internship.

Sincerely,

A disgruntled intern that will just end up grabbing coffee either way and you know it.