By Shirley Cayetano
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Leaving your comfort zone after graduation should be a top priority. Yet, one out of five people 20s and early 30s lives with their parents, according to the New York Times.

A few decades back, people of the same age were desperate to leave their parents’ home and move on with their own lives. What happened?

Sure, the process of becoming truly independent can be tough and absolutely terrifying. Sure, you will struggle with paying bills and prioritizing responsibilities. But at the end of the day, choosing not to return home after graduating from college only accelerates a process that you will eventually undergo anyway.

Independent graduates will have that much more experience and confidence navigating the real world five years down the road than their peers who spent those five years under mom and dad’s roof.

Living at home rent-free after graduation definitely helps to save money while paying back school loans, but living with friends can have a similar effect. You can save money by split the bills with your roommates and still be independent at the same time.

Moving away from your parents helps you become self-sufficient. You figure out how to get yourself out of difficult situations without their help, and the number of choices and duties you have increases in areas with which you were never before concerned. Cleaning, decorating the apartment, grocery shopping and scheduling is all up to you.

Although this all may be exhausting at first, it would become part of your routine, elevating your maturity.

Other benefits of living on your own or with friends after graduation are the privacy and freedom that you’ll enjoy. You certainly wouldn’t have that in your parents’ home.

On your own, you do not have to report to anyone but yourself, and you can come and go whenever and with whomever you please, without asking for permission.

Of course, wanting to live independently is not a matter of completely neglecting your parents. It just means that you would rather challenge yourself to function without their omnipresent aid.

The views and opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section are those of the authors of the articles. They are not an endorsement of the views of The Chronicle or its staff. The Chronicle does not discriminate based on the opinions of the authors.