Why didn't anyone tell us that by like 19 - 21 you haven't figured out what you want to do...

Why didn't anyone tell us that by like 19 - 21 you haven't figured out what you want to do, you're going to be in deep deep shit? Like many of you I completely wasted half my 20's. I went to 2 different colleges and switched majors a few times. I didn't graduate. Now I just work shit jobs and am miserable, all because I was never planning ahead. When I was in my early 20's I thought I was still young, nobody told me that was the time to start grinding and making serious decisions. I should have joined the air force or something. Now I am in deep deep shit. I am 26, no college education, I make $9/hour I cannot even come close to making enough to move out of moms house. I have zero friends, I have no gf (ever), I have no life at all outside of work. I am completely stuck and have no clue what to do.

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Because it was a given.

Do you need someone to hold your hand big guy? By 16-18 you're a grown man. You have hair on your ballsack, so why can't you figure out how you want to live your life?

You're just a lazy moron who played world of warcraft or whatever game. The normal people actually built their futures and realized that magic doesn't happen, what you do now is what you'll do in 5 years.

You can go back to college. You can establish your own enterprise. You can develop a plethora of skills, starting with simple fucking licence like a excavator operator. Taking exams that a literal chimp woul pass.

because 26 is still ridiculously young.

most people switch careers entirely several times even if they went to college. Most people go bankrupt and have to start over. Most people don't start to seriously make money until they're well into their 40's.

nothing you do at your age matters much financially.

This.


What you don't realize OP is that everyone tells us from like 5th grade and on that we need to take responsibility and work hard.

By the time you're a freshman in highschool you have people helping you plan your life (that counseling and career center you refused to visit because you had a few dank memes to look at and a few raids to grind in World of NeetCraft after school).
>why didnt anyone tell me I had to be responsible
It's nobody's fault but your own that you didn't acknowledge the legions of adults who were literally paid to give you advice for free - all you had to do was pull your head out of your ass and take your hand off your dick just a little bit.


Enjoy being a lonely, no motivation faggot that wasted his youth and will let that wasted youth eat away at his life until he dies, alone and cold.

You fucked up user.

>Enjoy being a lonely, no motivation faggot that wasted his youth and will let that wasted youth eat away at his life until he dies, alone and cold.

>implying he can't go to college now
>implying he can't get into the air force now

this.

Everyone told you to work hard, your parents - your teachers - the school counselors - it was all over every form of media. you can't turn around and now say "Why didn't people just force me to do the right thing! :(" as if you would have listened.

I know your pain.

But you know, I finished uni at 30. So you can still change things around.
And when I was 31 I realized it's better to become a memetrepeneur and I wondered why nobody told me about that option before.

If I were you I'd study IT, so you can get a proper job and easily start things at the side.

In my opinion, people really have three good decades to set themselves up. And drifting through them have increasingly bad consequences.

20s- half of these years, you should be in school. The other half should be to set up a career. Drifting in this stage really has the lowest consequences, but you will "feel a bit behind"

30s - This is when you should be making better money and investing diligently. Drifting through this decade is more serious and you will see the start of irreparable consequences.

40s - This is when you should be at the top of your game and consolidating your life plan. It's a decade of paying off debts, restructuring investments and preparing for the downswing in energy and potential in your 50s. The consequences of drifting through this decade is large and irreparable. Unless a large amount of luck comes your way, you'll probably go into retirement very poor.

So, in short, if you're in your mid-twenties, there's lots of time to establish things. But the clock waits for no one, so get cracking.

Hope that helps

Mostly what said. Sorry, OP. Honestly though, you can plan what you want to do but you'll more than likely end up doing something completely different. I wasted my degree on creative writing with a media minor, hoping to do something in entertainment. Now I'm working as an email marketing developer making about $50k~ a year. A lot of it is just pure chance, I hate to say.

College sucks to be considered for anything you just have to do it.

Did you not go into work and just become a memetrepeneur? How'd ya do it

That's not true, you just have not seen the light yet.

I got into a trade at 27 and turned everything around.

You just gotta find something lucrative, beg your way in, then work your ass off, then leverage your abilities (including jumping ship to a better job)

you can do it.

This isn't spot-on desu. The people you are talking about didn't actually just say you need to work hard, they propagate this idea that to be anything you have to go to university, and that any university degree is worth doing, when in fact these days probably 90% of degrees are absolute bullshit and not worth the paper they are written on nevermind $50,000+.

What these people should be encouraging people to do when they leave school is WORK. And if you really want to go to university, do your research about what skills your degree will actually equip you with.

People jumping into degrees at 17/18 without a clue about how the world works is how people like OP are created.

I know that feel OP.

Except in my case, I only wanted to do one thing and one thing only, draw. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with drawing however. In highschool, I just wanted to draw fun characters and come up with fun stories, so I thought what I wanted to do was draw comics or do something with animation.

I didn't go to a traditional college, I ended going to a trade school for drawing comics/cartoons which had the promise of making connections with the industry. Unfortunately a lot of the people who went to this school were much older than me, like mid-late 20s, who had more drawing experience under their belt, and/or probably went to college, while I went to this school right out of high school.

We had portfolio interviews with editors from studios like DC Comics or Marvel, and some of my older classmates were handed business cards and contacted right after graduation to draw comics for them. My reviews were basically "you're good, but need to hone your skills more"
While, I improved a shitload at this school, I wasn't considered "industry" standard. It kinda sucks when your go to school for three years and are told near graduation that you need to practice more. Sometimes I wish I could go back to school so I can have the excuse to draw with all the time in the world.

After graduation I went back home to my parents, and they're wondering why I haven't gotten a job through my school. I can't get the job I want without practicing more, but practicing more means sitting at home for hours which was frowned upon by my parents.

Thankfully 3 years after graduating, an alumni was able to get me a job at a game company that just required my skills in photoshop. While I finally got a good paying job, it was 9-5 with an hour commute and it made it hard to find time to draw so I can one day get the job I want. Now 3.5 years later I have been laid off, so now it's finding a new job again.

TL;DR version. My only skill is drawing, but I'm not good enough for the jobs I was trained to do and now I don't know where to go. To get the job I want, I need to practice a lot to get good, but I feel like I have no time to do that because I need to make an income. Unfortunately I have no other skills besides drawing.

Consider getting into a trade. I started a union electrical apprenticeship at 22. I'm 24 now, making $40k, and in a few years I'll be at $80k+. Like you, I also live at home still and don't do much outside of work besides video games. You're not that unique and certainly not as "stuck" as you could be.

what does your art style look like?

this. u can always learn a trade or get some IT certs

kill urself

save up 5k, 100x leverage btc
if fail: claim bankruptcy, save 5k and repeat
if win: congrats you have tens of thousands of dollars please repeat process until u have a house

dont be too hard on yourself op it doesn't help
best case scenario for people in their 20s is they are working a full week at a career they dont hate, living somewhere cheap enough to save for a deposit on a house, getting to save most of their money but still enjoying life

OP your situation wasn't intrinsically conducive to you finding your feet early, simple as that

Some people know what they need at 7, some people only figure it out when they're 70

Some people die before they find their path

All you can do is seek truth at all times and never be satisfied, then trust in the idea that just needing those things will guide you to fulfillment. Who gives a fuck about the nature of that fulfillment because this life is a stupid fucking game anyway

Fuck everybody else's standards and be a selfish prick, it's the only way

I turn 21 next month and I don't know what to do, I don't want to go back to working in retail and I thought about joining the Navy but I just can't do that stuff. I don't have the money for college and even if I did, it seems like a very bad time to go to college and most of the degrees are worthless anyway. So basically I'm fucking stuck, and my only real options are to work at Wal-Mart for the next 10 years while I scrape by community college part-time so I can get a fucking associate's degree which MIGHT get me a 5% raise, and get shit on by all the smug assholes who had their university paid for by their parents. I might try /r9k/

That is such a fucking meme jesus.

All throughout school I was told to pick one of the following: Go to College (work hard for those internships and GPA, get good money in the future), Go into the Military (Instant career that can usually be continued for life, and also serves and an amazing resume builder), Go to a school to learn a Trade (always a market, always room to grow), or finally to just think up my million dollar idea and entrepreneur it
EVERYONE knows these are the options, if you think the only reason you wasted 80k on a lib arts degree was that a teacher told you to, you have WAY more problems than bad teachers

What school did you go to?

This.

It's just an excuse to find someone to blame. EVERYONE said work hard, no matter what you do.

And besides, even if they did. Do you not have a head on your shoulders? couldn't stop for a second to think "Hey how will this $80,000 investment in the Performing Arts pay off for me?

What are my future career prospects?

Do I NEED this degree?

Does it improve my life?

What will the future hold for me with this degree?

What will I have with this degree that I won't have with another option?

What is my opportunity cost?

What are the results of my current actions. What will occur 4 years from now if I pursue my choice? How about if I pursue a different choice?"

Like are you HONESTLY going to tell me you spent FOUR YEARS DOING SOMETHING, THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS and didn't yourself the simple question: "Why?"

You cannot tell me that's anyone's fault except oneselfes.

To be fair this kind of thinking isn't really encouraged so much as to just getting in to college and figuring it out along the way, which is retarded

Even if it isn't you should still have a brain.

To not question what your arts degree will be for is just so insanely irresponsible I don't know how people even breathe.

What a dumbfuck

Heres a secret, tard. The prerequisites on job applications do not always apply unless youre applying to a serious job that requires a real degree (STEM subjects/vocational degrees).

trade school

don't get memed, sonny

Oh yeah I agree with what you're saying. But most kids are expected to go to college immediately no matter what they study, even if they just "pick something." I don't know what OP's situation was, but considering the huge culture and pressure surrounding college and university, I can understand why he feels the way he does

Exactly. NOTHING is encouraged except going to university. At least, that is my honest experience. I never heard anyone talk about trades unless it was to say that trades were for people too dumb for university. I'm not saying that this is the only reason that people waste money on stupid fuckin degrees but it is a big problem.

2nd-ed, i'm gonna be making 17 hr next month which I can turn into a house, some education and some savings. America still kinda works yo!

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>this thinking isn't encouraged
Are you fucking retarded? From kindergarten and on we get the concept of "work hard", do you think that just means going with the wind and doing whatever the fuck you want whenever you want?

No. They taught you to plan, to study before a test and do your homework so you get a good score. Grow some hair on your balls and realize that being an adult is just scaling that up to bigger projects than just getting a good homework grade.

See
Everyone knows there are other options than University. Even though I was in GT/advanced/AP classes all my life it was still pretty fucking clear that you either get a trade, get a degree, join the military, or work a shitty highschool diploma job and hate yourself.

Stop blaming laziness on anything that is not yourself.

>no one encouraged me to do anything
everything is everyone else's fault right?

Not everyone's an ubermensch user, with no genuine encouragement and empty platitudes from those around you, most won't aspire to much.

Maybe some people were never meant to be much.

Maybe we're not equal.

>trades being for the dumbies
No offense to any trade workers out there, but that is essentially true. You only go into a trade if you think you won't be able to suceed in school (I;e - getting scholarships so you don't go into debt, keeping a 3.0< GPA, and working internships)

It isn't a BAD choice, but people recognize it isn't necessarily the BEST choice - which is arguably going to Uni so you can get a higher paying career.

All that being said, getting a trade is an awesome career path if you don't want to go through higher-ed - WHICH ISNT FOR EVERYONE

Tl;dr - You're the stupid one for not looking into things for yourself.

By much, I mean a reasonable 9-5 white collar job user.
Think back on your life and ask yourself did you get any encouragement from anyone of note?
A parent? Maybe a close friend?
Not everyone has that, and if you didn't and still made it, you probably deserve a medal.
Not a participation medal either, a genuine endorsement of fortitude.

>the degree scam should be allowed to continue because 17 year old kids trust their teachers and parents

Are you trying to seem retarded?

Teachers push the university deal because if you put the effort into doing well, the rewards are FAR higher than anything else.

If you are that gullible at 17 to not think ANYTHING about your future post-high school, then you deserve to be poor.

Like me and the other user have said multiple times, if you have hair on your balls you should be able to start doing a little planning.

>i sleep in class and never bothered to go to school counselor for advice, but it's not muh fault!!!

>tfw extreme narcolepsy
>wow dude just don't sleep in class lol
delet

This is such BULLSHIT. Teachers literally tell kids that getting a BA in Fine Art is a smarter decision than learning a trade.

$250,000 in the hole later and you wont be qualified to clean toilets LMAO

Never heard that once in my life

Where on Earth would you rack up $250k?

Get better bait user

At this point bernie sanders getting elected and getting lucky with cryptocurrency is your only chance

>Implying my school counselor actually gave two shits

This.

I am currently on a similar boat. I would love to go to a decent college for a useful engineering degree but I absolutely won't if it means going into 50k+ of debt and not being able to take a breath of fresh air or start a business because your loan payment is due..

Ideally I want to be a memetrepreneur.

Jesus christ...these feels right now. Im right here with you bro you are not alone. How much debt do you have?

>deep deep shit
lol?
just cause you're not some wunderkind 23 year old millionaire doesn't mean shit

dude...

trade. fucking. school.

it's typically extremely affordable

you too, fucko

go to trade school

Do NOT listen to this man. He is your ENEMY. I'm willing to believe they don't even PRACTICE trading in these so called "trade" schools.

Look at this cuck who doesn't know what tradeschool is

I hope your just memeing and aren't actually so detached from reality that you think the economy is just people sitting on their asses moving 1s and 0s around to different computers

What, the "don't even practice trading" part didn't make it clear enough?

Dig in and prepare for a long frustrating ride; you're not alone. Chalk it up to crappy direction from disconnected parents, your own naivete, over paid counselors. Find a way or make one.

Crappy full of shit mentors

>50s. The consequences of drifting through this decade is large and irreparable. Unless a large amount of luck comes your way, you'll probably go into retirement very poor

Wait, how the fuck does that work? I mean if I learn a new skill or fail to get a promotion at that age, then it will have a much smaller impact on my total lifetime income than if I'm slow in my twenties.

>then leverage your abilities
How do you do that?

I'm afraid I'm going down the same road as you. I'm 20 and I already switched majors twice, and will do it a third time this year (from ComSci to Economics + PolSci). I hope I can finish it this time bacause I've already wasted three years of my life.

I always thought I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I was a teenager, but when I started studying ComSci I found out it's not what I expected.

My family has a business and basically every single family member works there and earns a lot of money, but I "wanted to go my own way" and ended up getting fucked.

There's more to life than just learning new skills

He's saying you have to have a certain amount of prep work done by your 60's or you'll be so old you'll hate life when you either retire poor or work till death

How do I figure out what I want to do anyway. I don't want to get a degree and end up not liking my profession or being unsatisfied with it

If you fuck around until you're 50 years old, you'll almost never catch up. How is this hard to understand?

Start your own business

Sit the fuck down
grab a pen and paper
think of an idea

Do this everyday until you come up with a decent business idea. Fuck college, fuck minimum wage, and fuck working for other people. Come up with a brilliant idea and then collect royalties. Rinse and repeat.

Start selling drugs or smoking cock op

>ComSci I found out it's not what I expected.
What do you mean?

>nothing you do at your age matters much financially

i somewhat agree with that but you still have to pull up your sleeves and gather skills, no matter what

he wanted video games but got C++

I'm in a similar situation, OP; after dropping out of school as a failed animation major, I'm now about to get my AA and going to get a BA in Technical Communication. I also plan on doing a double major, but I'm not sure what the other major will be. I'm already over $20,000 in debt so I'm scared I'm making another bad decision, but I have to move on with my life somehow.

Furry porn
I'm only half joking desu

College is a gamble, but it pays off if you are lucky. The trades are a solid option when you are young, but they take a toll on your body.

IMO there is a 3rd option; working your way up in a kitchen. I am talking about real kitchens, not fast food.

>places are always desperate for people and will train someone who is motivated. The whole "apply in person and give a firm handshake" meme still works
>so few people give a shit so moving up to kitchen manager is doable in 2-3 years.
>you can get the drug and pussy filled haze of the college experience all while learning new skills and making money
>there are some lucrative endgames like executive chef, food sales rep, starting your own restaurant
>girls love a guy who can cook

The pay and the hours do suck, but a good cook will never be out of work for long.

>get good at something
>start talking to everyone in that industry, all the owners, employees, etc..
>find out where the most money can be made
>jump ship to that place
>do all this behind your employers back

Is this really Barron Trump's art?

Kid is more glorious every single day.

Even that's not an excuse. I played Everquest 40 hours a week during high school and switched it to WoW during college. I still got great grades in a major that I picked based on the large amount of well paying job opportunities I knew it would offer (accounting).

There is no excuse for claiming you didn't know it's important to have your shit together, I know 8 year olds who already know they'll need a good job when they grow up

Best advice in this thread.

It was over since day one. You'll never be the chad that fucked all the prime girls during HS, why bother?

All those college cucks that get the leftovers and marry them while wagecucking have it even worse.

Prime aged girls will never look at you with desire. It was over since day one. Moneycoping and careercoping is cringe.

I was "warned" by father around early 20s if I dont get my act together I'm going to lead a shitty life

Honestly I could care less, old fucks can't relate to men in their 20s/30s, there's no job security or loyalty, employers will kick you to the street if they get a call from some commie faggot claiming you're a "racist"

Haha no thanks, you small few who put in the effort and are reaping some reward, realize itll be short lived and ur wife will cuck/divorce you

Have you done this?

(Steven Bauer in Scarface voice)
Look at those titties

>tfw studied history

Comfiest major for aspiring hobos. At least the library's warm, lads.

Whoops, forgot my face

Here's something my loving father told me when I was young and all through my youth: everything in life is sales. Whether you're selling your labor, your knowledge, or ad space on a website that gives away free money, you are really not doing anything but sales.

Fucks sake OP, we have the Internet now. Spend a year figuring out how to set up a drop ship or a content driven blog and sell chink shit or ads.

How anyone with ample free time ad internet access can't leverage those to make money these days just blows my mind tb,h

Just keep it up. Maybe go back to a trade school or get a factory job making 12 or 14 bucks. Overtime helps to get cash to move out.

Life can be a bitch user.

I dropped out of 2 junior colleges and am 31. Make $18.50 with about 10 hours of overtime a week.

No point stressing about it now user. Just buckle up and work towards better income unfucking yourself.

Been in debt simce i was 15 and finally realising that debt can be good if u do it right.

Not sure wtf to tell you on the gf thing.

Been married near half my life. I do remember that having balls helped in school. U old enough, hit up some drunk bitches at the bar. As long as they arent slobbering drunk snatch one up. Most of the time its why they are there.

Good luck user.

Make a plan for later but dont let it eat at you. Or you will wind up checking into a mental health facility like half my friends...

I liscense to run a hoe?

Wtf.

My boss sent a guy home for showing uo late and said get in the cat 345.

And i was a hoe operator for a year...

Nah man. Just shootbfor a much needed trade like hvac or welding. Its pretty easy and hell, my oipline buddies all moved a shitty canoer city up to the school. After 9 months make over 100k day one out of school. Most of them get a new dually and build a bed after graduation and make over 150k using their own stuff.

Some will even goband list on as a hekper even tho they both pass. Then fuckoff all day and split 150k a year.

Look. Rather than fight tooth and nail can we not all agree that trade school is an alright alternative? No u wont make hindreds of thousands but it teaches you a lifelong skill so u dont starve or flip burgers. Anyone not wanting to do man work in there 60s should do this and pay cash for college

Or fuck up like me and depend on physical labor and working harder than everyone around me. Only to become a fucking gimp at 24 and not able to walk for shit... guess i will die now...

Just guess and run with it. Pretty much roll the dice or flip burgers and die. One of my shittiest jobs got me the skills to get the job i have now. Awesome for the most part.

Make more money than i ever have. Treated well. Pretty much do wtf i want and bounce around listening to the radio.

Turns out what i really want is financial freedom at nearly any cost.

Study oersonal finance daily now.

I would try and have a descent job unless you truly have the stomache for this. Most dont.

I dont.

I do as long as i dont suffer broke anyway. If i can keep my day job and do this then fuck yeah.

Such shit advice...

m8 I think the trades are great and all, Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe is a great show and stuff but I'm a huge fucking pussy and I would never make it in a trade like that. I've heard from people who went into welding, who are like me, that it's absolute hell and they want to get out of it ASAP, that they get screamed at all day and the work is hard and dangerous. That sounds like my worst nightmare and the average welder's salary is like 35k a year so it seems like a meme

Same with HVAC or any trade, really

>ITT: Everyone had the same elders and people to look up to

Just because your own situation gave you constant barrage of "work hard and you'll succeed" from older people doesn't mean everyone was growing up in the same way you fucking retards.

My high school guidance counselor was a fucking dipshit. My teachers berated students, and the only thing I had going for me was my mother who constantly said she's proud of me no matter what I do because I'm her little pitbull. Once I bought into an idea I would lock down hard and never give up.

I got kicked out of college at 22 with just associate's to my name, started ironically working at the college I got my associate's at as an advisor the same year, and then pursued a math degree and industrial engineering bachelor's. The only things driving me forward were a complete hatred for living paycheck to paycheck, a strong desire to prove my counselor who said I'm not cut out for college wrong, and my Mom. Life is excellent now but it wasn't always tons of encouragement from every source around.

Shit happens OP. Just keep your hopes up high and your head down low. Honestly figure out what you enjoy, and find the closest avenue to making a living out of it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's not too late to go back to school dude.

Thanks, this is my life, I'm a POS with severe depression and psychosis. I got halfway an undergrad degree in STEM, but now I'm fucked financially.

No one told you because most people older than you don't have their own shit figured out.
Young adulthood is like this pitfall and you see a bunch of assholes fall in but you're too naive and full of yourself to figure away around it. So you sit on your ass and be a delusional turd until finally you hit that pitfall just like everyone else and you're fucked.
If you sit back and audit your decisions up to now you will realize you had every chance to avoid the trap but you just didn't do what was necessary.
Lucky you, you're still 26, there still time to rectify you situation before you really get into the shitter and there will be no turning back.

>What do you mean?
Assuming he went to a school with a good comp sci program:

>first semester you take some piss easy programming 101 classes to weed out people who 100% should not be there
>second semester you take advanced programming classes with some math classes to weed out the rest of the kids in the wrong major
>three more years of math, logic, and some specific areas of programming

My first semester as a comp sci major there were two simultaneous 101 lectures with ~250 students in total. By the time I graduated there were 12 students left.

More specific to the question, 95% of the kids who dropped the major only went into it because "dude I spent my entire childhood playing vidya and building computers" only to realize that it's a pretty difficult field.

man all that projection would really make a man's ass hurt. try some bengay old pal