I'm almost 24 with no direction in life and little social life...It's depressing!

[Mark_P]

I just don't know what to do any more. I am 24 years old in 3 months and I haven't even got a stable career. My future looks bleak, because I just don't know what to do for a career. I have lots of ideas, but then it means going back to education and possibly going to University.

I haven't thought about going to University, just because I am getting older and want to set up a nice life for myself. I don't particularly want to be going to University at my age. I still live at home with my dad as he's been a single parent since my mum died when I was 13.

I went to college at a later age, when I was 18 years old. So by that time most students are going to Uni. Well anyway, I studied for 3 years (2 years + foundation year) and I passed with average grades, but after I left college I realised that the course I did was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So basically, I wasted 3 years at college doing something that I have lost interest in.

Anyway, I don't want to keep blabbering, but I just feel depressed because I don't have a career path to follow. I feel like I'm falling behind in life, and it really sucks! Not to mention that I have few friends, if any genuine ones. I feel I have 1 or 2 friends who are close, but the other few are not really close friends at all. I can't meet new friends as I work in a dead end job (I'm a building assistant) with 2 other guys who are much older than me.

I feel like I'm at an all time low in my life. I can't even go back to college because I have to pay £1400. This is because I did the previous course at the same college for free, therefore I will have to pay this time around. And I don't even have a concrete idea of what I want as a career.

One of my closest friends who is the same age as me, is starting a course in September to be an IT Technician. He has a career planned out and is working towards that, but me? I don't have any ideas at the moment.

Just feeling down and depressed about life right now. Any advice?

[Pinkcasi]

Hey there, sorry it's bad for you just now i do know exactly how you feel you've just described my life, Im 33 now and at your age i was in exactly the same position, i spent 3 years at college, i wanted to be a veterinary nurse, i was to take a year out then go back to nursing collage, and here i am over 10 years on working in an office doing a job i hate just trying to pay the mortgage, ok im really not helping am i sorry, im not saying your life will be like mine, people say to me why dont you go back to college and do your animal stuff (aside from the now apparent anxiety and OCD so i could never work with animals, just too dirty) I say it's too late for me I now have a house, mortgage bills to pay, i cant affort to reeducate, but you can, the hard part is figuring out what you want to do, but you have time for that, dont feel like your life has to be all perfect right now sometimes it takes people longer, if you dont know what you want to do why not go travelling or something, just dont rush into something that your going to regret again.

Hope you figure it out and sorry if i've just made it worse

[Pipkin]

Hi Mark,

Trust me, all is not lost. I work in this area and I see people much older than you going back into education and training and starting a completely new career.

My advice would be to go to your local further education college and have a chat with a careers guidance officer. They'll help you to get to the bottom of what you really want to do and the best way to get there. You can easily go into higher education and get an HND or a degree by studying part time at college. Most people seem to think you have to go to university to do this but your local college will also do it and you can stay at home, if you want to.

Also, from this September, you can get a student loan for a part-time course which you only start paying off when you're earning £21,000 a year. Getting a loan can seem like an added burden but, given what you've said, I would suggest you've got very little to lose. Even if you don't go down this path, a guidance officer will help point the way. If you let me know which area you live in, I'll help you find out where to go.

There are no end of opportunities for you but, ultimately, it's only you who can make it happen.

Take care

Pip

[grotbags]

I know how you feel! But you will be surprised at how many people do a course or degree that they don't use, and then go on to retrain in something else. Probably about half of my old group of friends ended up doing this.

Going back to education can open doors and make you feel as though you have a purpose. Perhaps you could make a list of possible career choices, research each one and try to pinpoint what you want to do. If that means going back into education for a few years, so be it. It's rare to be sorted with a career at your age. You could always find out about student grants, loans etc by going to Citizen's Advice, the job centre, or finding out online. I never made it to uni the first time round because of my anxiety, but I ended up starting a degree from home when I was your age. It's difficult, expensive and time consuming and I still haven't finsihed it (almost there!!) but I don't regret it and I am now working part time from home (agoraphobia), so it was the right decision for me

[theharvestmouse]

Sometimes it takes a while to realise what you want to do in life and sometimes you end up doing something completely different to what you thought you would. I went back into education at the age of 25, so its not really that unusual.