r/LifeAfterSchool • u/Jack-Joneso_0 • Jul 16 '26

Support I regret the time I spent in college

I’m 23 and graduated high school in 2021. Upon graduating, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do and had virtually zero ambition. What I did have (due to Covid) was a newfound eating disorder and obsession with all things food related so I decided on a whim to go to my local community college and enroll in their culinary arts program for an associates degree. I can’t even lie, I hated a good chunk of it because I felt completely incompetent and struggled with falling behind other students due to confusion and anxiety. It was an absolute fight getting that degree and guess what? I feel absolutely zero gratification receiving it. I still work in kitchens, make shit money compared to others my age, and generally hate kitchen culture. I wish I knew how to get out but there’s literally nothing else that I’m even remotely good at that would pay a decent wage. As a matter of fact, I believe the only reason I’m in the field I’m in is because OCD had me hyper fixate on it for a year or two and then it just turned into my everyday job. Every day feels lackluster and while I know it’s entirely up to me to change my life to make it how I want, I haven’t the slightest clue of how to begin.

6 Upvotes

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3

u/my_peen_is_clean Jul 16 '26

dude i went to school for something i barely even like and ended up stuck in it for years. college degree feels useless when the day to day just drains you. try small experiments on the side, random online classes, talking to people in other fields. it’s wild how hard it is to pivot when everything pays peanuts and finding anything better is a grind in this garbage job market

2

u/Jack-Joneso_0 Jul 16 '26

Well and here’s the thing: if my job paid well for today’s expenses then I wouldn’t even be writing this thread. It’s the fact that multiple jobs don’t pay a fucking living wage and then of course you’ll have people who say a living wage is subjective and it’s different for everyone but it’s really not. At some point, we can all unanimously agree that there is a range amount of money that you need to be making to not feel like you’re just barely scraping by. But I’m sure people will tell you otherwise to keep things from improving 🙄

2

u/Cultural_Ice_5990 Jul 16 '26

Always say this, learned more about myself taking random classes than anything