It was supposed to be her last semester of college. She was graduating as a business major from the Eli Broad School of Business at Michigan State University, the eighth best public business school in the country. Still feeling unprepared after being drilled with endless amounts of academics, her anxiety increased. So much that she wanted to push her imminent future farther away. She extended her stay in college by decreasing the credits she took the following semester, in order to stay an extra year, all for the sole purpose of being terrified of the real world to come.

In a way, this a complete tragedy. A young woman with endless opportunities and resources at her finger tips, petrified of something many have done in the years past. The only thing holding her back is her fear of living independently. Each year, millennials from all over leave college with this same fear of reality.

In 2000, psychologist Jeffrey Arnett coined the term “emerging adulthood”. It describes extended adolescence that delays adulthood. As a millennial, my peers are the victims of this inescapable epidemic. Too often I am hearing my friends and peers talk about how they wish they could stay in college forever. I think there's many reasons for these fears. One may be helicopter parenting. Our generation of parents seem to do many things for their children that parents in older generations did not. We have everything we want and need handed to us on a silver platter, which makes having to become independent a nearly impossible thought. Another reason for emerging adulthood might be the competitive workforce. Today, a college degree is now a career equivalent to what a high school degree used to be. Four years of higher education isn't enough to succeed anymore. The bad economy may also play a key factor, since there is a scarcity of employment opportunities.

Regardless, this generation, generally, lacks the ability to act and think on their own without the guidance and affirmation of others, which has made leaving the nest and becoming independent a challenge for so many of my peers.