Senior year can be a stressful one for many students. For some, it means saying goodbye to a school they have grown to love, while for others, it means the prospect of becoming an adult and facing the world head on. Many feel that they have a good handle of how to manage money and what to expect from life, but the reality may be far different. This is the idea behind the Reality Store, an annual event for seniors at FCHS.

On Feb. 19, seniors were called down to the Auditorium during first and second block to participate in the Reality Store. The purpose of this event is to help seniors see what it will be like to manage taxes, monthly income, and living expenses as adults. Students were each given a “career” such as being a dentist, car mechanic, or a bank teller, along with a relevant salary. Then, they were given responsibilities like spouses, children, and student loans (or none) plus the expenses and commitments those responsibilities bring. If they were told they had a working spouse, then the spouse’s income was added to the student’s income. Student loans and taxes were automatically deducted from the monthly income, and if the spouse was working, then the student was expected to provide child care.

The first thing students were expected to do was to add some of their income to savings. “I didn’t think putting money into savings before finding out the costs of all the other expenses first was the best idea,” said senior Rachel McNair. However, the reason why this strategy was useful is because it gave students an idea of how much money they should put into savings after paying all of their bills. Afterwards, each student was required to buy things like health insurance and a house, using the money from their income to calculate how much it would cost for these each month. The total income varied anywhere between $1500 and $5000. Those with higher incomes could afford more expensive monthly expenses while those with a smaller income had to aim for the cheapest options.

While trying to find creative ways to save money, some students came up with strategies to rely on each other to make it through each month. For example, McNair mentioned that she and her friend arranged for McNair’s “spouse” to care for their children while she and her friend worked, thus removing the need to pay for child care. Other students chose to bite the cost for child care, which was more than most were expecting.

Despite the good premise behind this project, some students found faults in the Reality Store. “I like the idea of the Reality Store, and in a way, it did open my eyes to the real cost of things and how fast things could get out of hand. But the fact that you were randomly assigned a person’s life and forced to try and make ends meet didn’t sit well with me,” said senior Shjon Best. “I understand the point was to show how you can’t plan your life to the letter and things happen unexpectedly, but it’s almost contradictory. I’ve been being practically trained since I could read by the school system and family how to make good choices and how to avoid unsavory situations. The fact that I was forced into a life I would never end up in didn’t help me acclimate to real life at all — it just turned it into a frustrating game,” he said.

In all fairness, Best appears to have been dealt a particularly bad hand in the game. “When I’m started out with a situation so bad that even the adults running the [Reality Store] just say, ‘You’re screwed. I don’t know how to help you,’ then I can’t do anything more than throw my hands up in frustration. Other than getting some insight on costs and payrolls, the only thing the store did was give me practice keeping a check register — something Economics and Personal Finance already taught me,” he said.

Although it has its faults, the Reality Store is definitely an eye-opener. Whether it helps calm students who worry about being in terrible financial situations, or opens a student’s eyes to the future that they will walk forward to in a few months, Reality Store is certainly an experience that every senior should have.