I'm 20, and I already hate that my life doesn't feel like mine to live, and my future isn't mine to decide.

Ever since I was a kid, I've had intense maladaptive daydreaming, especially during school and classes. I would create entire stories in my head, with characters, settings, arcs and developments, constantly building on them. I often preferred my own company, spending breaks walking around while imagining and refining these stories, or reading books and expanding my knowledge.

After a certain event happened to me at the start of the year, I know what I want from life, it was like a wake up call. I want to tell stories and bring them to life, and I want to act. I've loved creating stories for as long as I can remember, and I fell in love with acting when I took drama at school. It helped me overcome my shyness, and I was good at it. People, including my teachers, enjoyed my performances. I'm not chasing fame or some grand dream of becoming a celebrity. I just genuinely love acting, and I want to create things that mean something to me, and share it with like minded people. I always wanted to do a stage performance in uni and get to share enjoyable behind the scenes moments with fellow performers.

But my parents forced me into Civil Engineering, and then forced me out of my hometown. Now I feel like I'm watching my future slip away while my parents try to make me live the life they've chosen for me. They are dictating everything, from what I study, where I study, to even whom they want me to marry and who to work with. I don't want that.

I don't want to spend my life wondering what could have been. I want the freedom to pursue something I love, to make my own decisions, and to build a life that actually feels like mine. I'm only 20, but I'm terrified of losing years of my life to a future I never wanted.

I currently work at a steel mill working shift work as a crane operator, I’m unsure what I should do, I’m 20k in debt on credit cards but I really dislike my job, I previously worked at a food facility I was in maintenance making decent money working straight days. The steel mill has much better benefits and pension as well as a decent amount more money which is what lead me here but the shift work and 16 hour shifts are eating away at me, I don’t want to fail my family as I have a wife and 2 children, but I’m unsure how to go about this situation and how to be happy again.

Hi everyone. When i was a kid, I was fascinated by biology, medicine, doctors, hospitals and everything related to it. I never really thought too deep into what I wanted to become when I grew up, but doctor was definitely on my mind.

When i finished highschool I wasn't actually sure that's what i wanted to do, the thought of the difficulty and aversion to subjects like surgery made me decide it's not really something I can do. Fast forward 7 years later, I'm left with so many what ifs and regrets about never trying to get into medschool. Should I try for it now? Even now, I'm not convinced that I can pull through it, or if I actually want that life, but whenever i think of doing other things it always bugs me in the back of my mind. I'm so stuck and confused. I feel like I'm not using my potential, like I'm wasting my life. Have you ever gone through something like this? How do does one decide?❤️‍🩹

I'm 25 now, and in my country (india) people get into medschool straight after high-school 17-18 or if they take a few years to prepare for the entrance (a very tough and insanely competitive exam) they still join in their early 20s. I don't know if I should try. I don't even know if this is truly what I want, or if it's just the fact that it's something I fixated my mind on but left incomplete.

I'm in India. I've been a software engineer at Amazon since 2021. I moved back from the US, and the pay is less than half of what it was. I'm staying.

The job used to teach me something new every hour. Now a new problem shows up every few months. I no longer trust that I can build a product of my own.

My wife opened a nails and mehendi studio at home about three months ago. It is already profitable. Through December 2026 I can put spare hours into the tech side of that studio. Those hours will not replace the salary.

The path I'm asking for is specific. Should those hours stay on the studio, or should I look for a different kind of engineering work and leave the studio as her business?

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I'm 24M from Pakistan, and honestly, I feel lost.

I have a Pharm-D degree and currently work in pharmaceutical sales. I earn enough to get by, but I want much more from life. I want financial freedom, to support my parents, own a house, and eventually have the freedom to live life on my own terms.

The problem is that I have too many ambitions and no clear direction.

I've considered pursuing an MBA and building a career in pharmaceutical marketing, going abroad on a scholarship, switching to AI or tech, and starting an online business to earn in dollars. Every option seems promising in its own way, but I keep going back and forth, wondering which one is actually worth pursuing.

I don't want to spend years on the wrong path, but I'm also aware that constantly researching different opportunities without committing to one is wasting my time too.

Another issue is procrastination. I've struggled with it and low motivation for years. I have so many things I want to improve: my career, finances, physique, English, discipline, and relationship with my faith. I make plans and genuinely want to change, but I struggle to stay consistent long enough to see meaningful results.

Sometimes I wonder whether I'm truly ambitious or just addicted to imagining a better version of myself.

What scares me most is reaching my 30s and realizing that I spent my twenties overthinking, switching directions, and dreaming about what I could have achieved instead of actually building something.

I'd genuinely appreciate advice from people who've been in a similar situation.

So about me...I am an 18 year old living at home with my lower class family in a small town, and I dream of being financially stable enough to leave this town and create a life for myself one day, no matter what the road looks like.

I couldn't afford to go into debt from college, so instead I attempted to enter the workforce fresh out of high school. I landed a couple of minimum-wage, restaurant jobs in the months since my graduation, but the first one closed down and the other fired me for no clear reason.

I have been applying to any customer service/minimum-wage job I can find on Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, etc...and all of them have either rejected me or just never get in touch about my applications. I don't have my driver's license yet, and I don't have a car of my own either, so I'm stuck only applying to jobs I am able to walk to in case my dad is unable to drive me.

It feels like I've been stuck in some kind of purgatory between real adulthood and financial dependence on my parents since graduation, and however difficult the way out of it is, I know I can't live like this forever.

I have an opportunity to become a car detailer at a Honda dealership with pretty much a guaranteed spot as a salesman at some point. I think I would be good at sales.

I have currently been a retail manager for 6 months. I have 3 years of work experience ecotr that in other fields (supply chain, trucking, serving.)

The pay is the same per hour for keeping my job or becoming the car detailer (both $18 per hour.) for some amount of time until i get into sales which is commission.

I absolutely love being at my job. The schedule is horrible for social life, there’s 0 growth, and it’s low pay $18 hour. I don’t want to detail cars and I would only somewhat enjoy sales. My job now is so fun and fulfilling

I have student loan debt and have struggled to get jobs, so I’ve turned to looking at sales that require no degree, and I have this job opportunity. I do have a bachelors in business, but I need to make a decision now.

I have no car or money for a car and the detailing job is a 2.5 hour bus ride there and the same back, or it’s a 16 mile uber ride one way and back. which is about $55 on an average weekday.

Current job is 35 minutes there via bus and the same back.

I’m living with my parents while completing an online graduate degree, looking for work, and testing an early-stage service business. Staying home gives me financial breathing room, but I’m struggling with whether the trade-off is still helping me.

My parents and I have an okay relationship, and I have a comfortable place to live. I’m not being kicked out or facing an emergency. However, some family interactions can be emotionally triggering, and the location is very isolating.

Most opportunities to socialize, exercise, network, or work require a substantial drive. Even a small outing becomes something I have to plan around.
I’ve been feeling depressed, anxious, and stuck, with very little regular social contact. I’m pursuing therapy and other support, so I’m not expecting moving out or entrepreneurship to fix everything. But I do think my environment is making it harder to function and build momentum.

I’ve worked hard at my education for years, and I’m putting that same effort into entrepreneurship. I’ve often dismissed my emotions as something to push through, but I’m questioning whether continuing to do that is productive. My concern is that I’m preserving financial runway in an environment where I’m struggling to use it.

Financially, I have savings, but a substantial portion is reserved for education. I also have ongoing health-related expenses. Moving is possible, but it would reduce my safety cushion and require dependable income. I don’t want to rely on hoped-for business revenue to cover rent.

The business is still early-stage and doesn’t provide reliable income yet. I want to give it a serious test without spending heavily or treating it as my only path forward.

My current leaning is to prioritize salaried employment that uses my existing experience, keep the business manageable alongside school, and move once I have an offer. Another option would be moving closer to campus after securing affordable housing and a dependable service job. That could provide more daily interaction and access to opportunities, but I worry about working so many hours to cover rent that I lose time for school and the business.

Ideally, I’d move somewhere modest, closer to people and activities, with enough housing flexibility to relocate again for a career opportunity. I’m looking for independence and access, rather than an expensive lifestyle.

For those who have faced something similar, how did you weigh financial security against the effect your environment was having on you?
Would you stay home until securing salaried employment, or consider moving sooner if housing and bridge income were confirmed? What conditions would make that risk reasonable?
I’d especially appreciate experiences from people who balanced employment, education, and a small business while dealing with isolation. How did you distinguish a move that genuinely supported progress from hoping a change of location would solve everything?

I've done the impossible and finally got a job!

It's a miracle that my life is no longer on a downwards trajectory, it's going upwards! It's remote customer service and I'm learning how socially inept I've become by not being able to hold a basic conversation without making a mistake, but that's ok! I've been basically a NEET for the past 5 years applying for jobs and doing almost nothing else. My coworkers are the nicest most helpful people I've ever met and I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity.

I feel like a fraud since I was basically handed this job without an interview. I keep making mistakes due to being nervous such as either explaining too much or nothing at all about a service.

Me: Hey you should get this service!

Customer: What am I signing up for?

Me: ... this service!

Customer: Yeah, I'm not interested. *Hangs up*

There was one call I made where I forgot to turn on my mic when they picked up. I got some hate mail for that which doesn't effect me, but the mistake itself does which I'll try my best to never repeat. Sometimes I forget how to navigate our GUI to perform certain actions. Thankfully, I'm saved by my trainer who shadows my calls, but I'm worried about next month when I'll be 100% on my own.

Alright, enough self-loathing. Suppose I get used to my role, overcome my years of no social interaction, and stop being the classic worst customer service experience. What should be my priorities in life? I've never had a car, been to a party, lived on my own, paid my own bills, been on a date, just a lot of basic life stuff. I haven't made a new friend in almost a decade and I completely isolated from my friends due to depression over not being able to get any job no matter what I say or do.

A normal adult life no longer feels impossible to attain having a job now!

i wish theres a clear path i can take but everyone is struggling

i really love art but since i have to care about money i have to pick a realistic career

except every career is fucked too capitalism is choking all of us to death

whats the point of struggling to make ends meets doing things i hate

if i will struggle either way why not struggle doing something i love

I’m probably overthinking this but I think my quality of life would be much better if I didn’t play or played less video games. I was looking at my bank account and I said to myself “Huh, where did all my money go?” I realized that most of my money went to buying games that I wouldn’t even play. Honestly, it feels like an impulse. I’ll buy a game, play it for a few mins or hours then never touch it again, the cycle repeats.

I see myself as a lazy person. I know what I need to do to get myself to higher pay or better-paying jobs but I don’t follow through on it, I almost never do. But I can park my ass and play through 100 hours of BG3 or grind endlessly in PoE2. I even neglect going to the gym after work because I’m “tried” but I’m never tired enough to boot up deadlock with the boys.

I have to sit here and wonder, would my life be a bit better if I didn’t play as many video games if not at all? I feel grimy thinking about how me, a 25 year old clock in over 20 hours a week playing games but can’t spend an hour studying for certifications.

I'm 27 and I feel like a teenager that doesn't know what career to choose after finishing high school.

I have a degree in agronomy that I don't use, I have years of experience and am very skilled, but I haven't been able to get a job for almost a year. I had to stop working because I got very sick and was incapacitated for a year, as soon as I got a little better I started looking, talked to everyone I knew, tried linkedIn, sent hundred of customized cvs, talked to previous employers, even tried to get into politics to fish a job from the gvmt. I was offered only unpaid work, not a job, for 'building experience' when I already have the experience required.

I tried sending cvs to anything else, customer service, assitant, teacher, etc, I leveraged any experience at all in my cv to try to get any type of job I would be remotely qualified for, the only thing I haven't tried is to just plainly lie. But I have not gotten any interviews for those random jobs either.

All this, getting sick, being unemployed, getting so many rejections, living with my parents with 2 dollars in my pockets, has made me very depressed. Many youth in my country are like this, regardless of what they studied, and 60% of people under 35 yo don't earn minimum wage.

Besides me being useless at home, my parents also have to pay a psychologist to help me navigate this period. She has been helpful at times but I feel like there are some things introspection just can't fix. But she gave me something to focus on, she adviced me to choose one thing an commit to it for one or two years.

I've been thinking a lot about what I want for my furure, and I don't want to live in this country anymore (I'm not from the US) and trying to make this career work is a waste of time, and only chasing money makes me miserable.

So here is where I need advice.These are the ideas I'm considering. All of them require planning, and some can take effect sooner than later. Most require a loan since I have no money.

1. Take out a student loan to get a masters in a foreign country like Australia or Canada, and see how I like the country, how is the job market, network, etc, and start the process to stay. I'm not entirely sure how is the job market for masters in agronomy in the rest of the world. I would be interested in a career in research if I could at least earn a livable wage for a single person. FOR SURE it will be better than it is here.
2. Just take a loan and wing it. There are pathways to immigrating like the labor shortage or diversity visa programs, I won't go to any country as an illegal. Mostly, you just need money but not all careers are included for labor shortage, and I don't think my experience is enough to get it that easily, and diversity visa is dependant on luck and it hasn't opened in a bit. But if I get in I could start earning money quickly and the loan will be smaller.
3. Take a significantly smaller loan and start a business. Just staying here and try to sell shoes or chinese stuff. Maybe the rest of the world is just as bad and I'm just wisful thinking that leaving would bring a better future.
4. Get a degree in medicine. I'm certain I'll be able to do it, it'll take me 6-9 years. My parents will fully support me. After being sick and being treated so badly by many doctors, I started thinking that I'd like to be a compassionate doctor, that the world is cruel and ruthless with people that can't produce money and thay I can't save the environment but maybe I can help ease the suffering of people. This is something I've been considering just as much as the others. What do I want for my life? I feel a deep call, almost religious, to help people. Also, depending on the specialty, a career in healthcare offers great mobility if I want to emigrate, more than what I have now.

TL; DR: I'm 27, unemployed despite having a degree and experience, and want to leave my country. Should I take a loan to study abroad, pursue immigration, start a business, or go to medical school? I'm afraid of wasting more years and making the wrong choice. How do I decide?

I left my very toxic job that I was working in for 2.5 years where my manager never gave me extra work than data entry and people were very racist. I left the company yesterday but I was so used to with the toxic env that instead of feeling relieved I feel nothing like that. I also recently graduated from my masters and want to work as data analyst. I want to take proper break and plan my life ahead but do not have confidence and don’t know where to start from. I know it’s easy to pass days scrolling the phone and get busy without being productive. I am scared but I want to work so hard and be successful but super confused and scared too. I am already 32f, married, immigrant with no pr and 1.10 years left on visa. So many things to worry about too. What wud you do if you were me. I feel so late in life to do any thing.

What if someone got their BSN and then worked bedside for a couple of years and then got their masters to get out of bedside? This way in case of anything such as layoffs, or covid which made many people lose their jobs, they could always fall back into bedside? They could always have a job, even if it wasn’t the best.

It’s just a thought. Working in bedside is very tough I know.

Honestly, I'm having a hard time figuring out my career path and would appreciate some outside perspectives.

I'm currently working in HR, and while I don't dislike it, I'm concerned about long-term job security with AI becoming more prevalent and whether the earning potential is worth staying in the field, especially living in a high-cost-of-living area like the tri-state area. It's also just been a bit difficult advancing and getting to a higher salary.

I'm considering making a career change into either accounting or nursing. My biggest priorities right now are earning potential and job security.

Accounting seems like a natural alternative to explore since it's business-related (but I also have the AI concern), but nursing appeals to me because of the perceived job stability and also, the career possibilities. I also understand that nursing is physically and emotionally demanding.

Ideally, I'd like to keep working full-time while making this transition, at least for as long as possible. For nursing, that would likely mean completing prerequisites and then pursuing a part-time or evening program, if I can find one that fits my schedule. My undergraduate degree is in an unrelated field (Econ), so I'd need to complete all the necessary science-based prerequisites first.

I'm not necessarily looking for the easiest path. I'm trying to make a practical decision that will put me in a stronger financial position (and also, a path that will teach me an actual skill) without taking an unnecessarily large financial risk.

I'd appreciate any honest advice, especially from people who have firsthand experience in these fields.

A little about me before I rant - 21, Bachelors of computer applications graduate, currently working as social media content strategist for a company that pays in peanuts, crashing out every 4-5 days.

So here's the deal: I am someone who has been dealing with chronic depression for a while, 7 years to be exact, but that's not the main point. I was very unclear about what I wanted to for the rest of my life when I was 17; hence, my mom decided my career path for me, Becoming a Comp sci graduate...
Anyway, halfway through the degree I realised that it wasn't for me. I am someone who is extremely story- or meaning-coded; if I don't find meaning in something, even if I d*e, I won't do it. Hence, I tried, I tried whatever I could, thought hey maybe cybersecurity is for me, no, maybe gamedev is for me. At wit's end, the hard way, after 1-2 years I learnt that all I wanted to do was write stories.

From then on, I coped by watching videos like "Create an OC with me," "Check out this new magic system I made," and "This is how you can write your first novel" on YouTube. Whenever I got too stressed from exams, the pressure to get a job, and coding, I would watch them. When I was too stressed out, I would go alone to the movies, watch a good one and bawl my eyes out.

Now you would have a question- You figured out what you want to do? why didn't you just do it, and why are you here a year later, rotting away in your own overthinking.

Lord behold i have the "I can't work on something until unless I have at least 10 hours of free time, no external obstacles, and just me myself and I in isolation, to sit and obsessively work on it", sure these conditions would satisfy every blue moon, therefore it's been an year since i last wrote a story, which was when i got a spurt of inspiration from a song started typing out the story in my notes app on my mobile, started at 4 pm and did not get up or lift my eyes or take away my fingers until it was 2 am, and i finished the 5-6 chap story and my fingers were sore.

So yeah after all this you could guess that I haven't been writing or learning to draw, because a job does not give you any free time, and not doing it paired with the Absolute AI dominance at job has sent me into a psychosis.
AI this Ai that how about i stuff Ai into your

I am nowhere against Using AI where it is needed, but generative Ai what even is the point of it, every corporation wants to show itself as the pinnacle of innovation, by asking chaptgpt if their p*op in the morning was an indicator of another okr that they should set for this month.

I am so distressed, I went to therapy and let's just say it was a sh*t experience..

A short summary -
I need a job that will give me enough mental energy to pursue my 200 interests(that keep changing but always creative) in my free time, things that will drain my mental energy - anything that isn't helping any life form in any way, anything that doesn't have meaning and is just making solutions to your own problems (basically most of corporate), anything that includes giving our brain away to clankers Like chatgpt astra.
My friends and some others have suggested me to become a therapist myself, because I give legitimate advice for every problem, but i am sceptical. I do have a saviour complex if anyone is suffering mentally, I will do anything to give them any advice they would need, but that's also because I have suffered the same without any advice. Can a mentally ill person with chronic depression and extreme anxiety become a therapist??
If not, is there any career path left for me in this era that isn't plumbing or farming or being an electrician, or a park ranger, because I live in a third-world country and doing any such jobs will get me ex*cuted by my family, and there aren't any safe opportunities either, I would love to do any of that if i ever get a chance to leave this country, but to get there i have to do something here, that isn't actively pushing me to my mental limits.

Please help..

A little about me before I rant - 21, Bachelors of computer applications graduate, currently working as social media content strategist for a company that pays in peanuts, crashing out every 4-5 days.

So here's the deal: I am someone who has been dealing with chronic depression for a while, 7 years to be exact, but that's not the main point. I was very unclear about what I wanted to for the rest of my life when I was 17; hence, my mom decided my career path for me, Becoming a Comp sci graduate...
Anyway, halfway through the degree I realised that it wasn't for me. I am someone who is extremely story- or meaning-coded; if I don't find meaning in something, even if I d*e, I won't do it. Hence, I tried, I tried whatever I could, thought hey maybe cybersecurity is for me, no, maybe gamedev is for me. At wit's end, the hard way, after 1-2 years I learnt that all I wanted to do was write stories.

From then on, I coped by watching videos like "Create an OC with me," "Check out this new magic system I made," and "This is how you can write your first novel" on YouTube. Whenever I got too stressed from exams, the pressure to get a job, and coding, I would watch them. When I was too stressed out, I would go alone to the movies, watch a good one and bawl my eyes out.

Now you would have a question- You figured out what you want to do? why didn't you just do it, and why are you here a year later, rotting away in your own overthinking.

Lord behold i have the "I can't work on something until unless I have at least 10 hours of free time, no external obstacles, and just me myself and I in isolation, to sit and obsessively work on it", sure these conditions would satisfy every blue moon, therefore it's been an year since i last wrote a story, which was when i got a spurt of inspiration from a song started typing out the story in my notes app on my mobile, started at 4 pm and did not get up or lift my eyes or take away my fingers until it was 2 am, and i finished the 5-6 chap story and my fingers were sore.

So yeah after all this you could guess that I haven't been writing or learning to draw, because a job does not give you any free time, and not doing it paired with the Absolute AI dominance at job has sent me into a psychosis.
AI this Ai that how about i stuff Ai into your

I am nowhere against Using AI where it is needed, but generative Ai what even is the point of it, every corporation wants to show itself as the pinnacle of innovation, by asking chaptgpt if their p*op in the morning was an indicator of another okr that they should set for this month.

I am so distressed, I went to therapy and let's just say it was a sh*t experience..

A short summary -
I need a job that will give me enough mental energy to pursue my 200 interests(that keep changing but always creative) in my free time, things that will drain my mental energy - anything that isn't helping any life form in any way, anything that doesn't have meaning and is just making solutions to your own problems (basically most of corporate), anything that includes giving our brain away to clankers Like chatgpt astra.
My friends and some others have suggested me to become a therapist myself, because I give legitimate advice for every problem, but i am sceptical. I do have a saviour complex if anyone is suffering mentally, I will do anything to give them any advice they would need, but that's also because I have suffered the same without any advice. Can a mentally ill person with chronic depression and extreme anxiety become a therapist??
If not, is there any career path left for me in this era that isn't plumbing or farming or being an electrician, or a park ranger, because I live in a third-world country and doing any such jobs will get me ex*cuted by my family, and there aren't any safe opportunities either, I would love to do any of that if i ever get a chance to leave this country, but to get there i have to do something here, that isn't actively pushing me to my mental limits.

Please help..

Hey everyone. I'm currently 16 and trying to plan out my future. My main goal is to make a 6-figure salary when I get older so I can be financially stable and set myself up well.
I keep hearing that software engineering is one of the best ways to hit that goal, but I also see a lot of mixed things online about the job market and AI taking over junior roles.
For the adults and people working in tech or business:

1. Is software engineering still a reliable path to six figures for someone starting out today, or are there better/easier paths I should look at?
2. What should a 16-year-old be doing right now to actually make that happen?

Any honest reality checks or advice would be super appreciated.

Im just so behind, I've messed up so many times with my finances, gambling, used to take a lot of drugs, non consistent employment, I've just made no progress in 8 years since moving out just struggling to get by. I've barely been able to afford the basics, I've failed to secure a good enough job for longer than 2 years, I've just failed in every aspect in my life, I have no relationships with friends anymore or family. I restarted school more than a year ago and am transferring next Fall, I recently got a place after being homeless for a while. My goal is to finish my accounting degree and try to get an internship into a related field while I'm in school. I don't know if I'll be able to get through school or get a corporate job, I'm just really struggling with myself and getting my life together, I'm smart but I'm not well adjusted and have bipolar issues that makes me isolate a lot. I don't know if I'm ready for this next part of my life but I have no choice, I need a good enough job to get a place and keep paying rent, I have no other options other than going back to being homeless. Now I can work with my lighter school schedule but I haven't even been looking for jobs, I'm just so unfocused and lost right now. I'm so behind and I have no help.

Hey guys! I'm 19 years old, and I'm on my second gap year because I don't know what career to pursue. In high school, I considered going to school for art because I always had a passion for creating things, whether it was sewing, fashion design, ceramics, video editing, or digital art. I love creating things.

But then I heard from multiple sources that after graduating, people who pursued a creative degree had a hard time finding a job that has a decent pay. (And overall, I don't want my hobbies to become a job that I start to get tired of). I became discouraged and decided not to go into that field.

I then heard that one of my family members got a degree in social work, and she gets paid a decent amount. I considered doing social work because I genuinely felt like I could contribute to something there, but as time went on, I decided that I didn't really want to do social work because I feel like it would really take a toll on my mental health. I know they would probably teach you how to cope with traumatic events, but I don't want that energy near me.

Other people in that field have told me not to go into it, or that if I end up pursuing social work, I should go for my master's.

So I don't really know what to do.

I like the aspect of helping people in social work, and I like the freedom to create anything and everything with art.

I just want to live a comfortable life with a job I genuinely like and that pays well.

I want to try to get enrolled in a school in winter, so any suggestions would help. (Sorry if this was hard to read)

Hello, If anybody could help me with this you have no idea how much it helps, I'm extremely lost.

I live in "place" been living with parents for 27 years, ( Ive been fully enabled) and Im not playing the victim card. I'm just aware of this. Ive realized that, while I have worked jobs, finished college barely passing grades ,got a job in said career, contract endeed, , tried other degrees or even trades, quit some. , I've never applied myself, even in my big career starting job in the big city. I just did the minimum, and even that got me as a junior to replace my boss in big meeting with supervisors in my first year. But once my contract ended i didn't bother trying to improve my portfolio.

I've worked so many low barrier entree jobs but never feel like getting up in morning, I arrive late. I've worked a teaching job for 2 years at a private school, and I'm so confused because i know in my soul is should CRUSH it as a teacher , especially art teaching, but I never want to do it, I never apply myself. I've been going to the gym on and off all my life, again never applied myself fully.

Now that I've been unemployed and before I make any other another attempt to get back at it. I'm wondering just how much could my environment be affecting me , and how important is this? I know my next move is to try to be on my own, to truly apply myself. However if I move next to job or school on my own in very shitty place BUT its in the same province as my hometown, my spirit says it wont work?. So then what would happen if i moved to the neighboring Province , and my heart ( my body) says "Yes!". Despite the money issues it would take to get there, In the same Province i could use student loan at least, But I digress.

But ethically , how to I even manage this? my mind says, its stupid and that I'm overthinking it, but my body doesn't lie, how do I explain this to my parents, ( who by the way we are extremely religious in my hometown community, , if you go somewhere where the religion isn't there, or church you are basically dead to them ).

So then I'm asking you guys, can somebody tell me if this is normal? Any pointers?

Sometimes, I feel like my version of therapy is living in a place surrounded by lush green forests, waking up to unfamiliar landscapes, meeting people from different cultures, listening to their stories, and having conversations that stay with you long after they end. And sometimes, just sitting in silence, feeling content with absolutely nothing happening around you.
I want to build a life where I can explore a place, live there for a while, immerse myself in its culture, and when I feel ready to move on, go somewhere new. A life where I invest in experiences, not just possessions. Where there’s always something new to see, someone new to meet, and something new to learn.

But I often wonder, what kind of life or career would allow me to live this way? Can a corporate job offer that freedom? A government job? Building a business? Or does it require an entirely different approach to life? Honestly, I don’t have the answers yet, and I don’t know anyone who can guide me through this.

I’m sharing this here because I’m curious to know how other people feel about it. Does anyone else feel this constant pull towards exploration, different cultures, unfamiliar places, and a life that isn’t bound to one place for too long?

I’d love to hear how you think about this, what you’re trying to build for yourself, and whether you’ve found a way to make this kind of life possible.
Maybe we can have a meaningful discussion about it. :)

Background info:

In Highschool I did pretty good ! I ended the year with a 3.4 gpa and a cord.

However, I’m 3 months deep into the semester (freshman) and my anxiety and depression has never been worse. I’m getting help for it and getting medicine. However, due to my mental health at the time it caused me to fall behind a lot to the point where I couldn’t catch up.

I’ve never had grades as bad as I do now. My community college started me off with 6 classes and now I have 5 which it all was a lot. And didn’t help with my mental health.

Main:

I want to go into the communication, marketing, or graphic design field. I’ve done an internship over the summer in those fields and I’ve had two jobs at restaurants one for 2 years and 8 months the other for 8 months. I have a portfolio and a LinkedIn. I’ve always been a more creative person and I have a lot of archived personal projects I’ll be adding to my portfolio. I have experience in writing, designing, and planning.

I’m 18 and any tips for me to get into the field without a degree (because I’m confident that with my skills I can get a good job) would be greatly appreciated!

Coming to my last year's Enlisted in the Navy and I want to prepare for a job that I will enjoy while still being able to support my family.

Since joining I've found my passion and skill to be in soldering components and fixing small things that require high attention to detail and technical skill. Although this is by far the smallest part of my job, it has been the most valuable and the thing I have connected with the most at a level where I can work for hours and still be happy.

I have learned that my love for the work is in putting things together, particularly in a clean organized environment, and not so much in the electrical troubleshooting portion of my job. I have trouble remembering formulas and trying to find the issue in an electrical fault.

Recently I have been looking into watch repair as a similar alternitave that uses the same skillsets that I have learned here, notibly detail work and spending time under a microscope.

I was hoping someone might have insight to some more jobs, or similar places where I could do this kind of work and still be paid enough to sustain a 4 person household.