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Life was supposed to evolve this way: Study hard, graduate from high school, go to college.

Study hard, graduate from college, get a good job.

Work hard and earn a promotion that nets more money and more responsibility. Maybe fall in love, get married and have a kid or two.

Buy a house.

Take vacations.

Prosper.

That’s what many members of generations X and Y expected out of life. Most were wearing OshKosh or diapers or were a mere twinkle in their parents’ eyes the last time America faced a prolonged recession.

No one ever mentioned hiring freezes, layoffs, foreclosures or repossessions to them. Not one thought of earning a business degree only to search for a job  for months on end. There was never a word about having the promise of a home deferred by an economic downturn.

Inflation and deflation were just vocabulary words.

Now it’s reality for many 20- and 30-somethings, who are feeling the anxiety of living through their first recession.

As a student taking 18 credit hours  at N.C. A&T, serving on the university yearbook, working as the features editor for the campus newspaper, shepherding students as a residential assistant — all while maintaining her spot on the dean’s list —  Alexandria Harper  can be described with one word: overachiever.

Her reward came at A&T’s December commencement, where she walked the stage a semester ahead of schedule to receive a degree in liberal studies .

Just don’t ask what she’ll do next, other than returning to her childhood room in her parent’s Westerville, Ohio,  home.

“Not because I’m not accomplished,” the 22-year-old  said. “I’ve had internships. It’s because of the economy.”

That has her a bit stressed.

She’s facing a nine-month void until she starts graduate school and, so far, nothing to fill it.

She’s hoping for something that will advance a career in her chosen field, print journalism. She has even inquired about working for free.

No takers.

“I’m applying for scholarships and keeping my fingers crossed,” Harper said.

The alternative is settling for ... anything.

“I’ll have to do what I don’t want to: Make a living doing something that may not interest me to make ends meet,” she said.

This is not how she imagined her undergraduate career ending.

“I’m really, really nervous. I know I have what it takes. I have the knowledge. I have the drive. What I don’t have is the security.”

Vivian Lutian is always ready with an encouraging comment, but these days, she’s stocked with more than just words.

“I’ve had to buy more Kleenex,” said Lutian, an adult career counselor at Guilford College who works with students who are older than 24.

Lutian has worked in the career counseling business for more than a decade, and she has seen economic ups and downs. But the mood of the students coming to see her this semester has tangibly changed.

“I’m getting a lot more people who are emotionally upset, coming in in tears,” Lutian said. “Either they’re being laid off or they’ve been fired or they’ve been out looking for a job far too long, in their opinion.”

The National Bureau of Economic Research recently affirmed what people’s pocketbooks had been telling them: The country is in a recession and has been for months.

Not all the news is bad, though. More than 70 employers signed up for Guilford’s job fair last month, topping the number from last year.

But in the Triad, Lutian said, job opportunities tend to be in the service industry.

“Maybe it’s OK while you’re going to college, but it’s certainly not what they want to be doing when they finish,” she said. “That’s a part of the problem. The types of jobs that are available are not the things people consider to be a career. They’re jobs.”

Processing the economy’s free fall means balancing reality against perception. Having come of age in boom times, younger generations aren’t prepared for the fact that the careers they planned for may not be available now that they’re ready.

“They’re getting frightened, and they’re feeling like they’re never going to find anything,” Lutian said. “I’ve just felt a lot of pessimism, a lot of heaviness.”

“There are still jobs out there, and I’m still encouraging my students to go after them. Be patient because it’s going to take longer. It absolutely will take longer than you expected.”

This spring, the world looked rosy for Brian and Deanna Miller.

Deanna Miller, 35,  had landed a new job with a significant salary increase. The timing seemed perfect for her and her husband to move out of their two-bedroom apartment and buy a house.

“We had talked to a mortgage lender, gotten pre-approved for a mortgage and were looking at houses online,” she said.

Then summer came, and Brian Miller’s hours were cut from 40 hours a week to 30. He found out Monday that his job was being eliminated.

“The company he worked for sells lighting fixtures and ceiling fans, and mainly deals with new construction,” Deanna Miller said. “There’s not a lot of houses being built.”

That means no house for the Millers either.

“We can’t risk moving out of the apartment — with the rent that we know we can afford with no problems, with the utilities we know we can afford — to move into a house where we can end up being 'house poor,’ ” she said.

“It’s made us say we have to stay where we’re at now. There’s enough room.”

Brian Miller, 27, is looking for new work, preferably a position that would put his bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies  and his master’s degree in public health to good use.

But the pickings are slim.

“It’s become a part-time job looking for ...  another job,” his wife said. “He’s online. I’m online. We talk to people.”

Meanwhile, the couple has cut back.

“We don’t eat out as much,” Deanna Miller said. “I clip coupons religiously.”

“I told a friend of mine that, for the first time, I’ve really, really realized I’m an adult. I’m having to deal with taxes ... and really be concerned about job security. It’s completely changed.”

Ash Jones is idling at one of life’s intersections.

On the one hand, he’d love to study law.

“I’m very analytical,” said the Greensboro College senior. “I love researching and reading. That definitely gives me some desire to go toward a law-oriented job.”

What he doesn’t want is the crush of student loan repayments that could come after graduate school. He’s living on loans now and is worried about paying off those debts.

He’s not even sure how much he owes.

“I haven’t looked at the figure in a year,” Jones said. “I’m scared to do so. I’m not sure if I want to look at it and the interest on it all.”

On the other hand, he could get a job. If he can find one.

“The way I looked at it when I got into school was that a college degree equaled a good job,” Jones said. “The economy has changed so much in the five years that I have a different perspective right now. Having a college degree doesn’t  necessarily mean getting a good job anymore.”

Jones, 30, was a bit of a late bloomer. While many of his peers set off for college, graduated and started careers, Jones was just approaching the starting line.

“I was in the military for a while. When I got out, I just roamed around and wasted a few years of my life,” said Jones, a political science major minoring in ethics.

Those days are behind him, and his spring graduation looms. But first, he needs to decide which way to turn.

“Being 30 and starting off late, the question is, do I want to put myself in college longer, incur more loans and cause more of a financial burden on myself? Or do I want to just get out with a four-year degree, a bachelor’s degree, and get on the road with that?”

He sits at the proverbial intersection, idling.

Lucy Paschal won’t remember her first recession. At 6 months old, her biggest concern is a fresh diaper and ample food.

But the economy is making an impression on her parents, 29-year-old  Michael Paschal Jr.  and his wife, Courtney .

“Though neither of us has lost a job, we are still struggling to pay our bills right now,” said Courtney, 30 . “I feel like I’m constantly playing catch-up.”

They’ve dissected their budget to see what can be trimmed. Netflix didn’t survive the scrutiny. Neither did the gym membership.

And that weekly trip to the grocery store?

“It’s not a weekly thing anymore at all,” Courtney said. “Now it’ll be two or three weeks.”

But Courtney has one thing going for her: perspective.

“My husband was going to trade in his car to get a more family-friendly car,” she said. But “because things are the way they are, it’s hard to get loans. We don’t have the money to outright pay for that stuff.”

The Paschals are renters who aspire not to be. She knows it may take them a few years for that goal to be attainable.

“That’s OK,” she said. “We have plenty of room.”

“If you’re looking at 401(k)s and things like that, yes, obviously, I’ve taken a hit on that,” she said.

“But the good news for people our age is that there’s plenty of time for it to go back up.”

Contact Lanita Withers at 373-7071 or lanita.withers@news-record.com