Cape Cod is a Desirable Place to Live for Young Adults

Everyone, at one time or another, feels the urge to have a change of scenery. Most people satisfy this need with a vacation to Cape Cod. For people that live on Cape Cod year round, the difficulty in satisfying the urge is magnified by seeing the masses of people enjoying themselves on a visit to Cape Cod. Cape Cod residents, and especially young adults raised here, often have the urge to leave Cape Cod, and never return. Cape Cod really is a desirable place for young adults to live.

There is no nightlife for young adults on Cape Cod is a refrain heard often. Many admit this to be true when compared to a city or true college town. The cape does indeed have a nightlife, but it is geared to the smaller population of the cape. While the nightlife on Cape Cod would not jump out and bite a person, it can be found with a little bit of looking around.

Newly graduated high school student always lament that there are no jobs on Cape Cod that encourages year round living. This is true anywhere in the country, not just on Cape Cod. Anywhere a young adult looks for a career they are going to be required to have higher-level education then just high school. Graduates of a voctech high school are more likely to transition directly into steady year round, then a traditional high school graduate that has no defined skills or training. The same young adult will also complain that all their friends have gone away to college. While many of their friends may choose to go away for secondary education, the smart young adult will stay on Cape Cod and take advantage of Cape Cod Community College and the classes it offers. This smart student can save money on tuition, as well as housing. This one virtue is emphasized greatly in the college’s promotional material. What many young adults fail to realize is that high school no longer can be counted on to properly ready graduates for college level courses. So while the smart student is paying pennies on the dollar at Cape Cod Community College for elementary and college level courses, other students have gone off cape to large, expensive, institutions of higher learning for the same, sometimes non-credit, courses.

A common reason young adults say they do not want to be on Cape Cod is that there is nobody of their age to socialize with. When in high school people tend to socialize exclusively with their peers. They hold on to this mentality even after high school. It is as if they go around with blinders on, not seeing the vast majority of people around them. Young adults can often learn a lot of life lessons from older adults who have more life experiences. Once young adults realize this, the cape does not seem like such a lonely place.

Many young adults do not feel they can gain financial independence from their parents unless they move far away from Cape Cod. There is an illusion held by many young adults that things are cheaper everywhere else. Reality is that things are expensive no matter where a person lives. Someone could easily compare the cost of a two-bedroom house in Ohio and say it is cheaper then the same house on Cape Cod, but on average people in Ohio earn less for the same amount of work. The current economic situation on Cape Cod is such that any young adult, and even some lottery winners, find it impossible to afford housing. This is part of the reason there are so many boomerang children in the US, not just on Cape Cod. Things are not cheap, no matter where you are.

People, young and old, often complain that there is no mass transportation readily available on Cape Cod to facilitate getting around. Cape Cod is still considered to be rural living. Being such, it has a rural type of public transportation consisting of widely scheduled busses. No one can reasonably expect a public transportation model for a big city to be applied to rural Cape Cod.

The most common, and quick answer heard, is that the Cape is boring; there is nothing to do. This all depends on what a person finds interesting. In the summer, Cape Cod has plenty of beach and water activities. Even whale watching can fill in as a sunny day’s activity. In the spring and fall there is bike riding on the tourist free trails. There is also enjoying a walk on the beach with a dog, since dogs are not allowed on most beaches in the summer. Winter is a quiet season on Cape Cod when many people do try to leave, but not for people that think outside the box. Cape Cod is close enough to the smaller ski slopes of southern New England to allow day trips. On weekends it is simple to drive of a few hours to a favorite ski lodge to enjoy the slopes. While not a Cape Cod activity, living in a warm locale like Florida does not facilitate weekend trips to any ski slopes.

Many young adults do leave Cape Cod once they are able to. After a few years a vast majority realize what a great place Cape Cod is. These are the same people that years from now will be clogging the bridges and clamoring for a spot on the beach, and will come in the form of a tourist.