For someone who doesn’t have kids, I sure do worry about them a lot.

It began when the world started going haywire. The exact time is hard to pinpoint, as it has been spiraling down for some time now.

I really began to feel for young people a few years ago when we had a batch of new, smart college graduates come into the newsroom to work as reporters.

Some were from out of state; some, Maine natives.

They had a hard time finding apartments in the Waterville area before they arrived, or at least apartments that were suitable and affordable. We older journalists did what we could to help, suggesting specific buildings, landlords and areas of the city or surrounding towns.

I didn’t realize at the time just how much it cost to rent an apartment. My young co-workers were talking about anywhere from $900 to $2,000 a month and up for a one-bedroom — an amount that kind of blew me away, considering they had enormous college loans to pay off and cars that needed work. They also had to buy gasoline, food and other necessities.

I felt terribly sorry for them, having graduated from college decades ago when $5,000 a year for tuition, room and board was considered exorbitant. My siblings tried to convince me to go to a college in Maine that charged a fraction of what it cost me to enroll in a private college in West Hartford, Connecticut, but I was insistent.

When I became an upperclassman in the mid-to-late 1970s, I moved off campus and shared an apartment in Hartford with my friend, Kimberly, and we paid $165 a month for a large, two-bedroom apartment that had tall ceilings and classic architecture, in a pretty nice neighborhood. That was about $82 a month each, utilities included.

When I finished college I had about $10,000 in college debt which I thought was a lot, but I was determined to pay it off  consistently and on time. Oh, the joy I felt at about 30 when I mailed my final payment. When I think of the enormous college debt many of my colleagues have carried, it frightens me.

I know wages have increased and inflation has contributed, but the costs still seem enormous.

I recently surveyed my current co-workers about rental costs. One shares a three-bedroom apartment in Portland with two others and they split the rent three ways for about $650 each, but each also pitches in about $100 a month for utilities, Wi-Fi and heat. My colleague said other friends in Portland pay upward of $1,500-$2,400 a month for a one-bedroom; her friend in Waterville pays $1,400 a month for a one-bedroom; and three friends in Boston pay about $4,000, split three ways. Her friend in Gardiner pays $800 for a one-bedroom. My co-worker says they all discuss how their expenses eat up their paychecks pretty quickly.

Another colleague told me $1,000 to $1,300 seems to be a standard cost to rent a decent one- or two-bedroom apartment in central Maine, and the options are limited. The Augusta-Hallowell-Gardiner area averages closer to $1,200-$1,300, another co-worker said. Yet another said the market rate for apartments seems to be between $1,100 and $1,400.

Which is all to say I don’t know how they do it. When I was living in Hartford 50 years ago, a first-class U.S. postage stamp cost 13 cents. Starting next month, the cost of a stamp will increase from 73 to 78 cents. A loaf of bread in 1975 was between 30 and 57 cents; now it averages $3. A gallon of milk was $1.75 on average then, and now averages $4. The average price of a gallon of gas was 57 cents and now it averages $3.12. A base model for a Toyota Corolla in 1975 was about $2,700 and now, it is just over $22,000.

I could go on about the horror I feel as many children in other parts of the world are starving to death as we eat regular, healthful meals, and many are perishing in wars while others die painful deaths in makeshift hospitals.

But that is a column for another day. Suffice it to say that we who have lived good long lives are leaving our most precious commodity in the dust as we race ahead to God knows what.

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 37 years. Her columns appear here Sundays. She is the author of the book, “Comfort is an Old Barn,” a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at [email protected]. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com.