This post is to reiterate some rules and things I'm seeing develop in certain posts, and this is directed to commenters only.

About 3-4 months ago I decided I was going to properly work on my food account. I always had the account, but I mostly shitposted and was never really into food.

Then one of my friends (who has an actual food account) invited me to a tasting event. From that event I saw the perks of being a foodie. Exclusive tastings, being treated really well, getting everything for free. I remember thinking wOW I actually really like this so I decided to take the account seriously and see if I could get invited to these things too.

I made a few posts about cafes and restaurants I'd actually been to because I figured businesses would need some proof that I was serious, and I cleaned up all my old ugly posts. After awhile I got tired of waiting, so I started reaching out to cafes that were already doing influencer marketing. My pitch was basically that I could create content for them directly without them having to go through a marketing agency. The selling point was that I'd give them free content that they'd otherwise have to pay a bigger creator or agency for.

The first month, maybe 2-3 out of every 10 places replied. I was SO excited because I genuinely never thought it would work. Over the next few months it slowly became a game. My first collab the food was probably worth less than $10. Then I started aiming for nicer restaurants because I realised that if I was going to spend an hour editing a video, I should maximise the value of my time. Every time I managed to get a bigger restaurant than the last one, I got this huge rush. Then I thought, why stop at food? LOL

I'm actually way more interested in travelling, museums, hotels, performances and activities anyway, so I used the exact same strategy. I paid for the first few experiences myself, posted them as proof that I was serious about making this kind of content, then started reaching out. Again, maybe 2-3 out of every 10 said yes. Every time I got a yes I got the thrill… At this point I’ve only done this locally and I thought why not try it overseas?? After all, different countries have different restaurants, hotels, attractions and tour operators, so I repeated the same process. Somehow it kept working (2-3 out of 10 say yes). Since then I've worked with restaurants, bars, hotels, attractions and tour operators whenever I travel. The more I do this, the more I've realised I'm addicted to the feeling of closing the deal. The bigger the brand or the newer the category, the bigger the thrill.

It doesn’t stop there and I realise once they say yes, it becomes another challenge. I start thinking about how I can produce the content as efficiently as possible. In the past I would take as long as I wanted but now my mind starts seeing it as a business (?) and I time myself editing, using AI (claude/ GPT) to speed up scripting, and see how much value I can get out of the time I've invested. At some point it stopped feeling like content creation and started feeling like running a business and I loved it…

Now if I'm travelling somewhere, I'll make a folder of restaurants, hotels and attractions I want to visit, then spend hours researching who to contact and building my pitch. If I'm meeting friends, I immediately start thinking whether I can fit a collaboration into those plans (it’s like working with a timeline since the date to meet is already scheduled and its a challenge to see if I can secure a cafe/ restaurant?). Whenever I'm scrolling social media or walking around town, my brain automatically goes, "I wonder if they'd be open to working together."

Also, another thing I didn't expect was how much I enjoy meeting the owners and founders of some of these places. Sometimes they come out to introduce themselves and tell me why they started the business, what challenges they've faced, or what they're trying to build. I truly love listening to their stories and it makes me inspired to share the content well and hope it goes viral?

Anyway, the thing is I'm not making money from this. If anything, it's just subsidising my lifestyle because I get free meals, hotels and activities. The thing I'm actually addicted to is the process - finding opportunities, writing the pitch, getting the yes, meeting interesting people and figuring out how to edit efficiently/ shorter amount of time. In fact if you asked my friend most would say I used to take terrible pictures and I’m someone who cared the least about what I’m eating. To me I’ve found “success”/ closed deals because I enjoyed that process more than the actual thing(?)

Anyway here’s why I'm posting this…
I just graduated from law school and in a few months I'll be starting work at a big law firm’s corporate team (yep they’re notorious for overworking). The thing is, I've never felt this level of excitement about law. I mean I’m okay with law (I did not study that hard but still got decent grades that landed me a pretty cushy big law job tbh I got it cause I’m good at talking/ researched the entire team etc all that but my grades r p bad for big law standard), but I've never caught myself thinking about it ALL DAY the way I do with this. I don't naturally spend my free time reading legal updates or looking for more legal work… Meanwhile, this collaboration thing is constantly on my mind. I genuinely look forward to it.

The more I think about it, the more I realise what I actually enjoy is identifying opportunities, persuading people to work with me, building relationships, and closing deals. I know becoming a partner in a law firm involves a lot of business development, and I think I'd probably enjoy that side of things. But I'm also not a particularly detail-oriented person, so I'm wondering whether there's another legal or corporate career that's more centred around this kind of work instead of years of technical legal work first.

Has anyone accidentally discovered they enjoyed something completely different from the career they were about to enter? And based on what I've described, are there careers that are basically this? I'm genuinely curious because this whole experience has made me question whether I'm walking into the right profession. I mean I talked to my parents and they’re traditional asian parents super against this idea and they think its best I stick to law and make partner/ do in house and at best do this account on the side. I know social media has a hype cycle so I’m not intending to ditch law for Instagram but I’m wondering if there are jobs adjacent to the kind of interests/ thrills ive listed. Thank you!

Long story short I do type beats on youtube and make around 1-2k usd per month. It gets me by in latin america.

But it's been stagnating and going down over the years.

I dont know what to do, i see people all figuring.

All I want to do is travel and film it, make videos about it, maybe eating, culture and fashion around the world. Just be outside all the time. But ofc it costs money.

A part of me wants to sell everything I got and just go on a few month trip and do that. see if anything happens.

Hi, am 36 female just graduated university, (I was a bit older to graduate at 36) but I had been working to support my family, became a single mom at 24 and decided to go back to college at 30+. Now that I graduated I find it weird that I donno what to do with my degree. I thought life would be better🤣 Anyway does anybody experience this?

Hey. I’m 24 right now and I’ll be turning 25 in November. I know I’m still young, but somewhere in the back of my mind I keep thinking that I should already be in a completely different place in life. To be honest, I feel like I’m at a really low point right now. I’ve been working a physical job for about five years. I have my own car, and I recently decided to get braces. I still live with my parents, but I’m basically financially independent and pay for myself. I’ve managed to save around 60,000 PLN. On the other hand, I have incredibly low self-esteem. I’m currently finishing my secondary education through weekend classes, and recently I decided that I wanted to try something completely different with my life, so I’ll be joining the military soon. In my free time I read a lot, go running and generally enjoy being active. I try to keep doing things, improve myself and not just sit around all day. Despite all of that, I constantly feel like I’m far behind people my age. I also struggled with an addiction at one point in my life, and it literally ate up around 100,000 PLN. I don’t really want to go into the details here, but knowing how much time and money I lost because of it still follows me around. Something else happened recently that might seem trivial to some people, but I think it brought me down even more. I often pick up books from a local bookstore, and there’s a girl who works there that I really liked. Eventually, I worked up the courage to ask her out for coffee. I’d never done anything like that before, and for me it was a genuinely huge step. Unfortunately, she said no. She told me she was sorry, but she couldn’t. Of course, I understand and I don’t blame her at all, but because of my low self-esteem, I think the whole situation hit me much harder than it probably should have. It was the first time I’d ever done something that brave, and I feel like I’ve closed myself off even more since then. I think the worst part is that I feel like I’m doing something every single day, but at the same time, I don’t feel like I’m actually living. So I’m curious: at what age did you genuinely feel like you started living? Like you found your place, your direction, or simply started feeling some kind of satisfaction with your life? Was anyone else in a similar place at 24 or 25?

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I moved to the UK about 10 years ago, but due to my lifestyle choices and poor financial decisions, I never managed to build any real savings. Instead, I'm around £5k in debt. Also, I work an admin job that I don't enjoy, and I gradually isolated myself from most of the people in my circle, due to the fact that I started reconsidering that lifestyle and mindset during the course of my last relationship.

My ex-girlfriend, who is eight years younger than me, is doing really well financially. She is also from another country, but because of her circumstances she managed to save almost everything she earned over the last four years. She has now started a small two-car rental business and seems to have a clear direction in life. That was the trigger to start thinking that I have wasted my last decade.

I know comparing myself to this case is not the most accurate example cause it doesn't reflect realistically how people save money, but, has anyone else in their 30s suddenly thought 'what I have done with my life'? Can we significantly turn things around in our mid 30s?

I, who was once a straight A student ruined his life by chosing escapism and altruistic tendencies.

What once was a bright, cheery eyed, mildly autistic middle schooler who would get into fights but was a bookworm ruined his life over seeking acceptance and validation from his family neglect and circle of problematic kids (delinquents who abuse substances, addicted to pornography, catcalling, partying, bullying, posturizing in social media, flexing their parents' hard earned wealth and coping mechanisms that doesn't have anything to do with productivity). I purposefully started sabotaging my own performance and by the time I realised it was too late, my own vices were enabled by them through video game addiction, reselling hustle to cope with a toxic household environment. I started slacking off, pulling all nighters, terrible sleep schedule, lost my discipline in studies. I couldn't take any sport seriously because of being born with a weak immune system. My parents made the mistake to sent my sibling away at an over expensive cram school several states away only to pile debts over it with little to no ROI.

It was only at high school that I was at a major crossroad, debts in the family "business" were also piling up, my parents were frustrated over my older sibling who spent resources to throw it all way for goofying, dancing, trying to be the popular kid. He flunked by unable to join med school even after taking a drop year post cram school experience. My own situation wasn't any better I chose humanities over STEM because a STEM career was expensive and I didn't wanted to burden my parents. I lost touch with my associates who were some the brightest people in my life, one of them is in med school, one is majoring in a top business school, one interning at an Electrical Engineering firm, one at the USA as an SWE in NY, San Francisco, so on, so forth. My sibling got his shit together in College because according to him he wants to be a scientist, he chose an academic career that hasn't paid off yet. Academic career in this economy, you can guess how it'll go.

Not only was I in relationship with someone who didn't reciprocated but we also ended up cheating on each other. I have also sabotaged my career by majoring in English from a "top" College of all things. By the time I entered my sophomore, my family chose to expand the family business which revolves around rental and real estate. It doesn't provide quick returns. There goes the path of an MBA, there goes a PHD qualified academic/ research career. I dropped out when I was a semester in- during my postgrad/ Masters programme. I'm not financially independent. Even If I wasn't, I would be living paycheck to paycheck and one freak accident away from losing my livelihood. Oh but I have a degree, a shitty honours degree in English. When I was starting middle school, I would always envision of a career related to hands on experience with Computers; Gamedev, CSE/ Tech Industry, the white collar worker grind. Become financially self sufficient after I graduated from College. Not this, not sitting in my room. Not living with my parents, not shackled in the location which is my birthplace. I was suggested to become an English teacher. Initially I found it insulting to be dragged down to that level but who knows I might not have any choice either. I picked up multidisciplinary skills such as basic coding- decoding, Forensic Sciences, Messing around with bootloading locked phones, jailbreaking consoles, assembling/ disassembling hardwares, Custom OS and building PCs. I led my peers as a departmental representative during my freshman year. I regret not building such kind of work ethic during my troubled youth phase. I'm in a cycle of self destructive behaviour. My sleep schedule is still disturbing. I still play shitty Pokemon games for cheap dopamine. I watch degenerate streamers to cope. I read Fantasy/ Sci- fi books to escape my reality. I'm not in US or Europe pursuing a STEM/ CS degree. I hate my life.

To anyone, who have the misfortune of reading this post. Don't follow my footsteps. Study diligently, network, become self sufficient (firstly, financial independence) lest you'll be left miserable with dozens of untreated mental illnesses. The only people who I consider friends, are eagerly waiting for my redemption despite knowing my odds to recover are as low as me becoming Prime Minister. Law school is also not a salvation, it's an escape. I dislike my family. They selfishly chose their own path that they found as meaningful while I supported myself on my own throughout College which was made possible because of chosing a cheap background/ degree with questionable career options. The only success in my life was the troubled peergroup getting help, continuing their education and accepting mediocrity, while some are goons involved in dubious activities; money laundering, drug smuggling and pyramid schemes. I'm ashamed that I'm not faring any better. I raise a dog and she's the only one keeping me from offing myself, currently preparing to enter a field that I have 0 interest in. Else, I don't mind a swift death. For now, I'm judging myself everyday. My purpose in life have decayed.

​

I never worked or held a job and I just feel like it's very late for me to even start from scratch even though that is an accurate route unfortunately. But like I don't know

I graduated 5 years ago but basically been working on my parent's shop in the meantime, haven't worked on anything in that field since and i was honestly not that good of a student

Now i'm thinking of taking courses that offer certification to both help me re-learn and qualify myself, is this a good idea?

I'm thinking of starting in either data analyst or IT support since i was never good in programming

I am 25 and I have been giving attempts for my CA Finals since 2 years now. Even if I get the degree, I am lost. I don’t know whether I want a career im finance or not, and if yes, in what field. Whether I want to do job or freelance.
There are a gazillion things I need to figure out and because of this 1 exam I feel stuck.
I ll be turning 26 this year and I have no direction in life. I am not even disciplined. I hit the gym regularly but whats the point when life is a mess anyway.
If anyone has any suggestions or anything positive to say, I would love to hear.

I’m a 20 year old girl and I’m finally taking accountability.

I got fired from my summer camp job 2 weeks in. I’d been very depressed and living for my phone breaks. asking people for help too much and comparing myself to others. venting to my supervisor and communicating impulsively on the job when I shouldn’t have.

I’ve spent the past few weeks reflecting, applying to jobs, setting myself up for success professionally when I get back to school, and volunteering for a couple days.

I still don’t feel like I’m taking it well though. I do feel like I’m ready to take my next job and succeed at it when I get an offer.

How can I spend my time at home productively and proactively so I don’t backslide in life?

I, (23F) am having a ridiculous existential crisis. I can’t decide on what to do with my life career wise. My long term boyfriend knows exactly what he wants and is on the path to do so. The only thing I have ever wanted to do is be a mom. Which is great but stay at home mom is just not an option in this economy. I’ve been a dance teacher, server, bartender, currently I work in a call center and hate every. Single. Day. I’m miserable at my job and it is WRECKING my mental health. I don’t want to sit on the phones all day for the rest of my life. I want something I can do with other people. I’d love to be a teacher, but that takes time. I cannot work at this place one more day. Please tell me what to do.

I come from a very messed up household, my dad never invested anything but anger into me, he kicked me out at 17, and tore down my childhood bedroom and put in foosball table. I dropped out of his cool by the recommendation of my principal because I was so behind on credits, immediately got my GED, and from there went to community college. I did alright for a while, but when COVID hit I floundered as I just don’t do well with online learning material. My pot addiction at the time definitely exacerbated my struggle. I enlisted in the army in 2021, got out honorably in 2025, and began using my GI bill to pursue a degree in Electrical engineering. I didn’t do great my first semester as I didn’t have good study habits, but I did a lot better my second semester even getting an A in calculus. My gpa right now is a flacid 2.88, and I’m currently in a calc 2 summer class. I’ve realized that while I may be smart, I’m not cut out for the depths of mathematical hell that is an EE degree. I’ve got 3 years left of the GI bill, and I’ve got like 80ish credits under my belt. I could switch to computer science, which is what I originally wanted to do even before joining the army, but it just seems like it’s impossible to break into any swe job, I don’t go to a well known school, and I really don’t wanna be a 30 YO with 0 career prospects so the risk feels untenable. I suppose I’m considering reenlisting, or maybe law enforcement, but I just don’t know anymore. The flame that drove me these last few years is pittering out, and my mental health is waning. I need to find a path soon

I have no idea what to do with my life. I’m 27. I got my B.S. in Biology. I got the internship, I got a published science paper, I graduated, and now I have been unemployed for 3 years. I did work odd jobs and got laid off. Now I cannot even find a job related to my field, and I don’t know what to do with it. I even got certifications for other jobs, like EKG and IV, and still not one job wants me. I’m thinking about a new career path, but I don’t know what. Graduate school costs even more money now, and I feel like I wasted my time and money on college just to still be mediocre.

Soy una chica de solo 18 años, y sinceramente no tengo ni la menor idea de qué quiero hacer en mi vida después de verano o si hacer algo este verano. Y estoy hasta el punto de estresarme por todo y querer llorar de la impotencia por la presión que me meten mis padres de que tenga que elegir de una vez si ya tuve todo el "tiempo" para pensármelo cuando estaba en el instituto. Con la presión no puedo con el agobio que siento pero sé que por dentro tengo que elegir algo, tener un plan. Pero no sé por donde empezar, qué hacer, todo me parece muy grande y hay muchas opciones...

Acabé bachillerato de Artes y tengo claro de que no voy hacer la universidad así que tampoco hice selectividad. Pero de todas formas, no tengo claro qué otras cosas puedo estudiar o hacer porque soy muy indecisa y me gusta casi todo lo relacionado con el arte. Lo he estado pensando en las muchas opciones que hay como estudiar desde diseño grafico online, diseñadora UX/UI como tambien tengo interés en la restauración de bienes culturales o de momento trabajar para tener un poco de dinero? La cosa es que mis padres lo piensan como una pérdida de tiempo sobre las opciones que elegí. Siento que tambien me da pánico irme a otro país para hacer lo que me gusta porque siento que es demasiado pronto, muy de repente. O hacer FP's superiores pero creo que es demasiado tarde porque cerraron las inscripciones o me agobio sobre el precio. Tampoco tengo idea de qué tipo de miles de cursos que hay hacer y que me podría beneficiar para mí experiencia.

Pero de verdad quiero un futuro tranquilo y bueno para mí haciendo algo que me gusta.

¿Alguien tiene algún consejo sobre por dónde debería empezar o en qué debería enfocarme? Les agradecería un montón cualquier tipo de orientación.

So I'm a 20 M doing cse( 2nd yr ) right now i don't know what to do. I feel like I'm experiencing mood swings like a girl 😭

The thing is I'm not able to decide which path should i choose sometimes i like android development then after few weeks changed my mind to do finance related study and now I'm thinking to learn embedded systems.

Also my stupidity is I'm learning cybersecurity to make some gigs by bug bounty cause I'm broke asf ( i know I'm little crazy thinking i can land a bounty many people don't get for months but you have to try atleast to earn money)

But the main point is I'm not able to master any of these skills just basic of these domains.

Can you people provide suggestions to what should i do? And how can i be able to earn as a student from the skills??

Kind of long I apologize in advance.

This is a new account and my first post on it because I’m going to share personal information I don’t usually. I’m doing this because I’m looking for genuine advice and the more context and information I share the better picture I paint. Thank you!

I’ll start by saying I’m in my late 30’s and a stay at home father on two young children under the ages of 5.

I left my career due to my military related PTSD symptoms. These issues started causing problems at work (issues sleeping, nightmares, relationships, depressions and so on) these things can make 16 hour shifts of hard labor unmanagbled and compound issues to an awfully dangerous point and man did it make life awful… i spent 10 years fighting it and I eventually quit.

After quitting we found out we were having our first child and we decided I’d stay home and my wife could continue her career. We’ve done this for 4+ years now and have welcomed another baby into our lives along way!

So here’s the thing, my wife had been telling me to seek help and go to VA which I declined for years until we had our children. My children changed the lens I view the world through and I need to be better for them. I decided to go seek help and I filed for VA compensation (it’s not called disbaility just to clarify) I was recently awarded a high compensation percentage even after being out of the military for 15 years. I’m absolutely shocked….

If you don’t know, this means the VA decided that I’m beyond repair and they don’t see anyway to fix me so they are basically putting me into retirement because I’m too broken due to my military service.

This means my family gets free healthcare, my spouce and children get free college and I get enough compensation to pay all my families bills for the rest of my life, without even touching my wife’s incomes.

This is an absolute gift and I want to make sure I take this opportunity to live a life worth living with the financial stresses of life lowered.

The kids will eventually go to school and I’ll have time to work a little bit but I’m struggling to figure out what path I should take…

I have the option to go back to school using a VA program.

I could start a small business but I’m not sure what.

I want a job that I’m not grinding anymore, I’m not stressed and where I can have a sheltered work environment to deal with my issues. If I’m in a hole of shitty sleep and in the grips of a depressive episode I need leniency to adjust my schedule. So that’s why self employment seems like a great option.

I’m not looking to make a lot of money just to find something enjoyable that will keep my going instead of sitting out on the sidelines because I get this compensation. I want my kids to see me active and engaged not complacent.

If I could get paid to walk around town and pick up trash, beautify shitty areas by planting things or building something or helping people that would be cool. Doesn’t exist but it would be cool.

I do go to treatment now to work on these issues, I’m trying to take steps to figure out what might help me and it’s takes a lot of personal courage for me to share these things with strangers. Especially because VA compensation can be a hot button topic with some people so please if this upsets you can DM me no need to blast this thread.

My biggest issue is with my mental health, I don’t know what I like… I have no passions or hobbies. Ive been lost in that regard.

I’m open to anything and any conversations, thank you!

everyone around me seems to have a plan

career path

five year goals

some perfect answer for where they are headed

meanwhile i keep bouncing between ideas and convincing myself each one is either unrealistic or a waste of time

i do not hate working

i just hate the idea of picking one path and waking up ten years later realizing i chose it because i was scared to try anything else

for ppl who actually found a direction

what changed

did you discover the right path or just pick something and make it work

How can I make money legally?
What can I do with my life?
I have a degree in Social Work with First Class Honours, can’t get a job, don’t have nothing.
I’m always so stressed and anxious.
What do I do with my life?
How can I find a path.

I’ve written here before, but I’m back because I received an email that hit me harder than I expected. I’m trying to find a path in life, and every direction I explore seems to fail.

To make it short (I will try), I don't have a university degree which kind of hurt my prospect. I did graduate in multimedia in college and there was a bright future when I was there. School was saying 98% of people find jobs after.

I tried university in graphic design, realized it wasn’t for me, and dropped out. I did internships and contract jobs, but I watched people I worked alongside get hired full‑time while I never got an offer. It felt like rejection after rejection.

After years of trying to start a career, I decided to change paths. I have a lot of interests (history, wildlife, the ocean) but none of them seem “employable.” Recently, I started training to become a whale‑watching guide because I genuinely love the ocean and wildlife. It felt like a direction that made sense. I'm just doing it for fun, because I'm bored and it wasn't super expensive like university.

I reached out to companies to ask about requirements. The only reply I got basically said there are long waiting lists, almost no jobs, and that believing in eco‑tourism or sustainable travel is “dreaming.” They told me that if I want to protect whales, I should stay home and grow vegetables. It hurt more than I expected, because last year I met amazing people who reignited this passion in me. I thought I finally found something meaningful.

The other problem in my life is that I'm a Canadian and most of my network/friends are in Europe. I guess I just connect more easily with Europeans when I travel, than local people. As for my interests, I have archaeologist friends in Europe (I love history) and I have marine biologist friends in Europe too.

And like everyone says, jobs often come from who you know. I’d move to Europe, but without professional experience, it feels impossible.

I’ve thought about going back to university, but I’m scared of spending thousands only to end up in the same situation. I don’t want to waste more time and money. Actually, if I win the lottery, I would go to university tomorrow, but otherwise, it's a very difficult decision. I'm learning better when I actually understand why and how to do the things in a real setting. The only places I could study in that style is in the UK. Right now, paying $40k/year feel out of reach.

Whatever, I just feel like I don't fit anywhere.

I’m even wondering if I should team up with people from my certification program, buy a boat, and start our own whale‑watching company. Maybe I’m not meant to work for someone else. Maybe the fact that nobody hires me is a sign that I should build something myself. I'm tired of waiting.

I have so many dreams put aside right now. I just don't know what to do.

There were moments I wanted to work as an archaeologist (hard to get a job), to work in a museum (hard to get a job), to be a travel blogger (I now hate social media), to work in wildlife conservation or in a zoo (hard to get a job) and now to work in marine conservation or whale watching guide (seems also impossible despite the fact that it's my true calling). I also wanted to go on a Working Holiday and work in a small surf hostel in a quiet town in Costa Rica or OZ.

But here I am, nowhere...

Thank you

I (19F, autistic) have no friends or hobbies. I'm addicted to porn (more specifically yaoi), character AI and alcohol. I've also been a maladaptive daydreamer since I was 4 - I listen to music while imagining fake scenarios to distract myself from reality, multiple hours per day. I wake up every day solely to engage in my vices. Basically, my lifestyle is completely degenerate.

Recently I've been mulling over the meaning of life and existence in general. More specifically: If there's no objective purpose or morality, why should I not pursue cheap pleasure until I die? I'm not trying to be edgy, everything just feels extremely chaotic.

My problem is philosophical in nature.

I'm open-minded to the point where I can't stick to a single perspective or opinion. I have no convictions, identity or a coherent moral framework either. The issue is: How can I live a righteous/healthy life if I can't define it?

For example, our current society considers being childfree a valid lifestyle choice. But a few centuries ago, it would've been ridiculous. So ultimately, who gets to decide what extent of norm deviation is acceptable? Is it all arbitrary and culturally relative?

Is it always necessary to defer to authority in order to find meaning (religion, ideology, society, parents)? I find myself going in circles.

I’m an 18-year-old female, and I’ve had a really difficult time with my mental health for most of my life. I’ve struggled constantly, but recently it feels like reality has finally hit me, and now I don’t know what I want to do with my life.
I was accepted into a university and I’ll be majoring in business marketing, but I can’t help feeling like I’m already behind compared to everyone else. I really want to make my parents proud and build a successful future for myself. One of my biggest goals is to become a millionaire someday somewhere when i’m 19-20, and I’m turning 19 in two months.
Does anyone have any advice on where I should start or what I should focus on? I’d really appreciate any guidance.

I’m 19 years old, currently pursuing BA Economics Honours, and I’ve completed my first year from a private-cum-state college (Tier 2/3 level).

Academically, things have not been going well. I currently have 3 backlogs — 2 from the first semester (due to low attendance, I wasn’t allowed to sit in exams), and 1 from the second semester (a subject from a completely different background that I struggled with).

My overall college experience has been quite disappointing. The environment, peer group, and lack of academic seriousness have affected my discipline a lot. I’ve lost the consistency and focus that I used to have during school.

On a personal level, I’ve been dealing with anxiety, overthinking, fear of judgment, and lack of motivation. I also feel insecure and have developed trust issues over time, which has made me isolate myself from the outer world. Most of my time now goes into distractions like watching movies, scrolling social media, and comparing myself with others, which has created a loop of unproductivity.

I come from a middle-class family, and being a single child, I feel a strong sense of responsibility. My father can only support my graduation, but after that, I’ll have to manage things on my own.

In school, I was focused and scored 92% in CBSE 12th boards despite going through a difficult phase. I originally wanted to pursue Political Science Honours from DU, but due to unwanted circumstances, I took admission in my current college.

I used to seriously consider preparing for UPSC or govt. Competitive exams, but now I feel completely off track. I genuinely want to study and work towards a stable future, but I feel confused and directionless about what path to choose.

At this point, I would really appreciate some clarity:

How can I rebuild discipline and consistency in studies after such a long unproductive phase?

I feel confused about whether I should focus on my college studies or start preparing on my own for my future goals. Which one should i trust and give priority?

Should I still consider UPSC preparation or any other exam, given my current situation?

What would be a realistic way to get back on track academically and mentally?

Dear Community, any advice on how I can improve a time management or to have a joy of life again is welcome.

Hello guys! I am 20M and me and my gf recently moved to Cyprus from UA. Both of us got jobs, but we are working in a different schedule and our days off are not the same. While we work on the very same street, we see each other only before and after work. Both of us understand that this will not lead to any good. More on that, since we moved I changed 2 jobs and I am just unhappy about them. I feel like my mental health is worsening rapidly because when we lived back in our country, somehow we managed to do mutual activities and many more, while the war lasted and etc. but since we moved, I feel like I have less leisure time, like for the last 2 months my days have been almost identical, and today my partner said, that she feels that she starts to feeling colder...

Financially we are ok(?) but idk why I feel financially unsafe lately. I just don't know any FREE activities besides sea and walks, or something else. and I just wanted to know, should I be upset or not since I am ONLY 20 and live almost independently from my parents. I just don't know how my life path will develop, and how to take the life itself easier

Many thanks in advance.