I’ve Done Everything Legal and Right. So Why Does It Feel Like I’m Being Punished?

I’ve done everything they told me to do.
Worked hard. Stayed honest. Paid my taxes. Went back to school. Followed every rule that was supposed to build stability.

And yet, here I am — watching my expenses double in six years while my income stands still.

It’s not the big things that break you; it’s the steady climb of small costs that never stop. Groceries, gas, insurance, rent — each one creeping higher until the numbers no longer add up.

I used to make $22.75 an hour doing a job that now pays $12.50. The work hasn’t changed. The value placed on it has.

The Quiet Shift

I earned my associate degree, proud of the late nights and early mornings it took to finish.
It used to mean opportunity.

Now, those same jobs want a bachelor’s — or even a master’s — for the same paycheck.

Education was supposed to open doors. Instead, it feels like someone keeps changing the locks and doubling the tuition.

The Racket of Higher Education

College was sold as an investment — a way to “get ahead.”
What it’s turned into feels more like a slow-moving hustle dressed up in academic language.

You pick a degree plan.
You knock out the general requirements — math, science, literature — the courses that apply to every degree.
Then you start on your major classes, only to discover the university staggers them. One class offered in the fall, the next prerequisite only in spring. Miss one because of a life event, and congratulations — you’ve just added a full year to your degree.

And just when you think you’re closing in on the finish line, the degree plan changes. Requirements shift. Courses are renamed or retired. Suddenly, you’re told half your credits don’t count anymore and you’ll need a few “updated” classes to graduate.

They’ve even started cramming unrelated certifications into the coursework — tech badges, software modules, or online “micro-credentials” that have nothing to do with the degree.
I had to complete a Generative AI certification for a Public Relations 101 class. I wasn’t learning how to write a press release; I was learning how to train a chatbot.

The higher-ed system has mastered the art of keeping students enrolled just a little longer, paying just a little more, for credentials that mean just a little less each year.

The Weight of Doing Everything “Right”

There’s a strange ache in realizing you did all the right things and it still wasn’t enough.
Not because you failed, but because the rules keep changing.

Every plan you make feels temporary. Every milestone seems to come with fine print.

It’s not bitterness — it’s bewilderment.
How can the reward for doing everything right feel so much like punishment?

A New Kind of Tired

This isn’t about giving up. It’s about looking around and quietly asking, “When did survival become the goal?”

Maybe it’s not that we’ve fallen behind — maybe it’s that the system keeps moving forward without us, raising prices, shifting standards, and calling it progress.

It’s a heavy kind of fatigue. The kind built from doing things right, over and over, and still coming up short.

Sometimes all you can do is name it.
Not as a complaint.
Not as a rallying cry.
Just as truth.