I started uni 2014 and I’ve still yet to finish it because of life BS. Dealing with depression / ADHD has made finishing my degree seem impossible for me to do and I feel like an absolute failure everyday because of it. I wasted many semesters attempting clases and then dropping out when my grades weren’t good.

My parents both graduated by their early 20s and had me at 23; I’ll be 29 soon and I still live with them working at a Walmart to make ends meet and even with that I’m about to be fired for poor performance. I feel depressed being there because I was given everything in life to be successful and yet I wasted my 20s away being depressed / suicidal. All of my friends all have graduated long ago and have better jobs and I get envious seeing them being successful. All I think about is splattering my brains all over the wall.

I don’t have a plan to follow, every day I’m just hating myself for wasting my best years over stupid shit instead of focusing.

  • Azzu@lemm.eeEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    If you’re like me, the literal only people that will tell you that you need a degree are your parents.

    I also studied for 4 years and was still in the first semester at the end of it. I just stopped trying. Now I’m a self-taught programmer.

    I can tell you with my whole heart: “success” is completely and utterly irrelevant. If you have enough to live, you have already “won”. Most other people would disagree with this. But there’s so much free or almost free stuff to do that you can literally fill your whole life with it and never run out. Everything else is, even though it’s very clichéd, a mindset issue. It is possible to be happy with very very little.

    I don’t know anything about your life, but if I have one advice it is this: figure out which of your beliefs come from within you or come from other people. Do you actually believe a degree is necessary? Or have other people instilled in you the sense that a degree is necessary? Is earning lots of money actually important? Or is that just what other people think is important and you copied?

    Also get therapy help if you can.

    • UnaSolaEstrellaLibre@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      My degree is in computer science, I’m very good with computers/Linux and programming but I haven’t practiced in a while. How did you jumpstart a career in programming without a degree?

      • Azzu@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        Don’t know where you’re from. I’m from Germany and we have a large vocational training culture. I just looked at some and found one that specialized in people that couldn’t finish university.

        But to be honest, it wouldn’t have been hard to find any entry level job either. You just need to explain that you’re not made for the educational institutions. And then provide proof of how you are good with computers/Linux and programming, most easily done through some contributions to open source projects. Of course you actually need to know about what clean code is, software engineering paradigms etc

        Very important to apply to very small companies, never large ones. The large ones do automatic filtering for people without degree or some shit, but the small ones actually look at resumes. In you resume, you can just make a compelling case (even if it’s totally bullshit) that you would be a good worker with your current skillset even though you don’t have formal education, and it’s likely you’ll be able to find some kind of job eventually.