I am more likely to be found eating a home-cooked dinner off my lap in my cramped Brixton flat than out on the town living it up
Like many graduates, it was always my dream to move to London when I finally got an “adult job”. I fantasised about summers spent eating al fresco in the streets of Soho, heading off to sip cocktails in a rooftop bar, before hitting the clubs until the early hours. Sadly, my fantasy remains just that.
The reality of being fresh out of uni and working in the capital is far less glamorous. I am more likely to be found eating a home-cooked dinner off my lap in my cramped Brixton flat, worrying about my dwindling bank account with my fellow money-strapped flatmates. I’m 24-years-old, but I’m stuck in Generation Boring.
Throughout the pandemic, I used to long for the day when I would be free to go out again. Shouldn’t we spend our 20s meeting new people and partying carefree into the night? Of course we should. But the reality for us was that when we were finally unshackled from Covid restrictions we were plunged straight into a cost of living crisis with soaring prices.
Now, no one expects to be rich when starting out in life. But still, older relatives frequently bang on about the big British youth culture of the 1990s when they were growing up, going out to house parties and pubs almost every night of the week, spending their evenings discovering new music and socialising in underground clubs.