For many people, their 20s is the “coming of age” decade, when they try to land their first professional job, move into their first independent living arrangement, and set their life course.
But for many 20-somethings now, setting and achieving such goals don’t come easily — and others are in no rush. Nationwide, teenagers are the only age group who have had a harder time getting hired in the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It reports that the number of people ages 18 to 34 who are living with their parents is on the rise.
Brent Wilkie, who will turn 24 in November, is among them, living with his mother and younger brother in Cornish. Born with a disorder that led to a heart transplant at age 6, the effects on his health have been lasting.
Twice a day, he takes doses of 13 different medications, some of them requiring multiple pills per dose. His short- and long-term memory are “shoddy,” he said, and an immune deficiency that resulted from the medication caused him to miss school for significant periods while he was growing up. He didn’t quite finish high school.
Still, he insists, it’s not his health that holds him back from landing a job — he’s applied for several retail positions.
“That has not stopped me from working, no — the fact that nobody is really hiring has stopped me from working,” Wilkie said recently, sitting in the back room at Black Moon Games underneath the Village Market in downtown Lebanon.
The shop sells a wide range of card and tabletop games for modern-day gamers; the most recognizable names to non-gamers might be Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.
For Wilkie, the shop also serves as something of a second home — he’s ambivalent about still living with his mother — with gaming akin to his unofficial day job. He got into gaming as a youngster, discovering the Pokemon card game during his prolonged hospital stay following his heart transplant, and now games and gamers form his community as a young adult.
He accompanies his mother on her drive to her job in West Lebanon most mornings, sleeping in her car before taking the bus to Lebanon to meet up with his friends and play games.
“I just like playing games,” he said.
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Brent Wilkie
Age: 23
Hometown: Cornish
Currently Lives In: Cornish
Where were you five years ago? Living in Cornish. “I think that was a time that I was really sick, still at home playing video games most of the time … with the immune system (problems).”
Where do you want to be in five years? Living in Massachusetts, where a friend his age who had the same heart transplant surgery around the same time now lives. “I’ve wanted to (move there) for the longest time.
What does the Upper Valley offer 20-somethings? Public places to hang out including the card shop, Spark Community Center and libraries.
What is the Upper Valley lacking for people your age? “Probably the people my age.”