I feel very lost and like I have made only wrong decisions in my life. Not sure what to do.
I'm turning 30 next year and I feel like I've wasted my life.
Last week I got an email for a class reunion. I have been unhappy with life before but now after checking what all my high school friends are up to, I feel even more worthless.
Literally everyone, and I mean everyone, I hung out with in high school is now either a doctor, phd, lawyer or works at big 4.
Meanwhile me, I'm still in school, miserable, working a minimum wage job to stay afloat (I have to preface any of the following by saying that I'm central European and we have barely any university fees, maybe 500€ per semester for regular uni, a bit more for specialized unis like design schools). I made so many wrong decisions and now it's too late to change anything. I feel like a total idiot.
I worked hard in high school and earned great grades, then started a degree in Asian Studies, planning to stay in academia. But when COVID hit right before my thesis, my library shut down for months, leaving me stuck. I became clinically depressed and couldn’t start my thesis for a long time even after libraries reopened. With therapy, I eventually finished my thesis three years later and graduated, but by then I’d lost most of the language skills I needed for a master' degree. But the tuition is crazy as a foreign student, and scholarships take off 20% of the debt at best. Though I would meet the general requirements and those are some big name Unis as well, having 30k in debt... I don't think I could ever pay that off even if I were to land a job right after. And I have to be honest, the passion for this subject has already died for me. Nevertheless looked for other jobs with just a BA out of necessity, but there are none. I applied to other positions anyway without a single reply despite a good gpa.
I decided to start fresh and began a design degree, something I’d always wanted to try. But now, in my third semester, I feel so behind my much younger classmates and isolated. I feel like I am way behind my peers, in skill and in life. They treat me like an alien too, as 90% of my class are fresh out of highschool and we don't have much common ground. Like, they don't even know Spongebob is how young they are. I feel so isolated and behind in life, seeing them just starting out. My social circle really looks down on me for choosing design and that only people who are "too stupid for regular uni would choose a creative field". My uni isn't even good, I had to go with the cheapest option because I could not land a proper job with sufficient salary to cover better design school tuition. My social circle started to talk to me like I'm dumb and are embarrassed to even introduce me at parties because I do not meet their expectations. I have been told several times that I fucked up my life. I will pull through though even though it does feel really wrong, I may be depressed but not a quitter... but I feel like a total loser still. I'm almost 30 and I have nothing to show for except for a degree that won't get me anywhere and mediocre design skills with a job market that will probably be overtaken by AI soon.
My dating life is no better, I have never dated anyone. I am autistic so it's already hard enough to meet people who can even stand being around me. I have been to first dates but nobody ever wanted a second despite me trying my best.
I feel so alienated by people around me, like I'm in a parallel universe. Everyone else is settled, with stable and successful jobs, starting families, buying houses. Meanwhile I'm completely lost, everyone around me is disappointed in me, I'm isolated, no prospects or future as it seems. I don't even know what to do or how to get myself out of this mess. I just wanna cry all day, what do I even do.
Posted Nov 1, 2025, 1:21 PM UTC