What am I doing with my life

So I'm a 25 year old girl, struggling with community college. I've been going part time for two years. I never had a job, don't have a drivers license due to trauma and mental disabilities.

At my age, everyone is graduating or already graduated and has at least a bachelors. I only have 23 credits in college as of now...but I've been struggling with learning disabilities and depression.

It caused me to think hard about what my goal is with obtaining this associates degree...what will I use it for? will I go to uni and be forever in debt? will I even get a job once I graduate? do I even need a degree for what I want to do?

Everyone just seems to think "go to college, get at least a bachelors (apparently an associates doesn't mean # now) get a high paying job that isn't fun and be in debt for years" I'm sorry but I don't want that. I don't care about making tons of money just so I can have a big house I don't need, a new car, the latest iphone or tablet and show off to everyone that these objects make me "happy".

I just want to live a comfortable life doing what I love.

I feel like everyone is conditioned from a very young age to "succeed" and make lots of money one day.

I'm so ready just to drop out of college... I don't want to follow the crowd.

What is you love doing?
I spent 2 years in college to earn an associates in computer drafting.
This was before Windows. Everything was DOS.
I wasted two years before I just started doing whatever seemed like a good idea at the time.
I have so far managed to earn a living and had plenty of interesting adventures.
Good luck.

a reply to: Midnight13

Have you thought about learning a trade? Medical billing, pharm tech, welding, etc. We can't all be executives. I'm pretty low on the corporate ladder and make an ok living at 28, and I refused to go to college.

I keep things simple, and that has worked for me.

a reply to: skunkape23

I love drawing. Been drawing since I was 4 and it's been my dream to make my own animation. Art school is way too expensive, plus,I don't want anyone telling me how to draw.

what is it you're doing now? and thanks!

well I never even graduated high school. I got my GED. I saw college for the sham it was and ran the other way. I worked at Wal-Mart for a decade, and came out of it with a decent retirement/investment portfolio thanks to my actual managing of it and not the company. Funny thing when you manage your own portfolio the way you want it it sometimes earns more money. Mine started ballooning when I changed around what funds my money was going into.

As skunkape asked, what is it you like to do?? I actually enjoy being outside in the blistering humid heat picking up garbage making the environment look nice. The closest I can get to that for the time being is working at a city park. I am thinking about doing it. Just head these words.

I worked at walmart for a decade and worked with dozens of people with bachelors and masters degree. What was the difference between I and them? I was not sitting on debt that could pay off half of a house while working for a company that would never bridge that debt gap.

The only fields that seem to work now a days is medicine, law, and engineering of some kind. Environmental sciences are good too, but jobs not as plentiful. if you like art you can self train in digital animation like you said and simply promote yourself for contract work.

I got a big family and love it. Keep in mind, there and men and women who mine coal for twenty years not because they have too, but because they enjoy it. One persons nightmare job is anothers dream come true. If they did n

originally posted by: Midnight13
a reply to: skunkape23

I love drawing. Been drawing since I was 4 and it's been my dream to make my own animation. Art school is way too expensive, plus,I don't want anyone telling me how to draw.

what is it you're doing now? and thanks!

I'm an artist and huge fan of animation myself.
Check out John K Stuff, the creator of 'Ren and Stimpy.' His blog is an awesome repository of all things cartoon.
Currently I am bartending and doing landscape work.
I was a machinist for a while, but I got fed up with that schtick.

I became self employed for many reasons which we will not get into.
But! One major reason is because I can do what I want and live at the level I want to live at.

Look into selling your art! Make an Etsy store. Or try Shopify. Make a brand with your art. I promise you it is MUCH less intimidating than it sounds.
There is a site called fiverr.com where you can get many things together for a business for $5.

Good luck!

And btw, I make more than two of my friends who have their DOCTORATE degrees. And I went to community college for barely a year.
Just saying.
It can be done!

a reply to: DYepes

Good for you. I came so close to dropping out of highschool. What a waste of time. In those 4 years, they could have been teaching us a trade skill for the real world.

Learn how to fix something people need, and you will never be out of work.

These days, a BA/BS is worth about as much as a high school diploma was 20 years ago. Everyone has one (and increasingly at public expense--you're paying for your competition's education). It doesn't distinguish you from the crowd at all anymore.

What will distinguish you is if you are a highly skilled tradesman (tradesperson?). No one knows how to do anything for themselves anymore. They'll need you.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

dude I could not agree more. My school did have welding classes though and a mechanics program. I always market my simple labor to those who do not know or care to do things themselves. Youd be surprised how much you can make in a week just by offering wall mounting a tv and hooking up all their gear. Then theres setting up and securing peoples networks, simple landscape work, cleaning computers of malware/spyware/viruses, helping them move.

In this country the only thing you need to be successfully self employed is a truck. It just gives you the capacity to do soooo much more than a car. There is always work for someone with a truck and the motivation to use his hands.

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: DYepes

Good for you. I came so close to dropping out of highschool. What a waste of time. In those 4 years, they could have been teaching us a trade skill for the real world.

High school was a complete suck hole for me.
I was more intelligent than most of my teachers.
I educated myself well while getting F's on my report cards.

It's just scary for me because I can't seem to find a job because of my disabilities:/

So I'm thinking about becoming some kind of art freelancer. Maybe doing illustrations.

@skunkape: funny that you mentioned John K. I used to be in contact with him back in 06 when I found his blog! he sent me a how to draw cartoons book and a signed ren and stimpy sketch! sadly I don't have it anymore...and we also don't talk anymore:/

a reply to: skunkape23

Same here. Never did homework, slept through class but Aced all the tests and got away with a C average. What a joke. Im still angry at the system for stealing those 4 years.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

and the other side of the problem is that we were teens and still trying to break out of the brainwashing that started from birth. Does not make things easier.

I have long given up the pursuit of wealth. The only career you want is the one that makes you happy

a reply to: Midnight13

It's also vital that you have good budgeting skills. It takes discipline, but if you can make the little bit of money that you do have stretch, then you will come out ahead of more than 90% of everyone else in our (de)generation. That alone will be 51% of your success.

a reply to: DYepes

Yeah, breaking that brainwash barrier was a real roll-coaster for me. I felt just like the OP feels now. Our society is so hostile to free thinkers. It criminal in imo.

At my age, everyone is graduating or already graduated and has at least a bachelors. I only have 23 credits in college as of now...but I've been struggling with learning disabilities and depression.

I had the complte saem freak out as you. I went to three different universiaties and ended up with a third class honours in Public Relations becasue, I had a really awful industrial placement with a complete Bi**h and she really knocked the confidence out of me and I lost all enthusiams, but I plowed on, transferred to another uni, and got my degree. However, 18 months later I was still working as a assitant manager in Clarks (had worked there since I was 16, in various stores across the UK) came home and yelled to Nonspecific in the kitchen 'It's all BS!' 'I have been lied to'. You told go to college got to uni get a degree and you will be happy, and earning loads of money. I wasn't any of those things.

So I quit my steady job, became self employed and worked music festivals for the next two summers buy and selling in the winter to get us through.

I now work for Castrol and pretty much worked into from applying to be a telephnoic mystery shopper doing 1 week a month as self employed. My degree hasn't got me my job, my perosnality has and the way I handle situations.

Degree means nothing now unless it's Law, DR's, teachers. It is about you, yourself. I am happier now then I have been ina ges. Still not rich, but not interested, my two summers working festivasl changed me for the better maybe you need to find yourself, andf take your time. Do what you love. I now love Spreadsheets! Sad.. but true.

a reply to: Midnight13

US Navy. Training with a future.

a reply to: Midnight13

First I am sorry for your disabilities and troubles.

Second, there is NOTHING WRONG with "just" having an Associates. I have two and they are versatile ones. What are you going for? (I understand if you do not want to reveal this.) I am a self-employed business owner making a fine living - even though I "just" have Associates. It's possible. Don't listen to the fools telling you to get into thousands in debt because you "must have" a Bachelor's. All that means is you will work your butt off, probably unhappily, to pay that debt off forever.

I have a suggestion for you. You say you have disabilities and want to do something arty. This is totally possible to do.

You can make an Etsy shop based on your art, and ONLY selling DIGITAL DOWNLOADS. Benefits to you:

-Self-employed
-Able to create art
-Sell art as DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY meaning:
---You create a piece of art one time and sell the art as a JPG or PDF or something over and over again even though you only had to design it once
---You are not bound to an employer and can choose when you work
---Because the art is being sold in digital download format, buyers can buy when you are ill, sleeping, pooping, or partying. You earn money 24 hours a day.

Here is an example of an art shop selling digitally. Look on left hand side to see the number of sales this shop has. Add that up. This is just one example. I have my own digital Etsy shop which has been open for less than 2 years and I have over 2,500 sales. Like I said, if I am pooping or partying I make sales...

Etsy Shop

This shop isn't even a super example, I have seen another shop selling digital art with over 100,000 sales.

Bottom line: don't let what others think is the "right" way to live your life is necessarily right. You are your own person with your own limitations, and strengths. So design your life the way it is right for you. This IS possible, even if people tell you it isn't.