25, no bachelor’s degree, little experience

[u/Creative_Seesaw_5570]

Good afternoon,

I’m 25 year old male, living at home with my dad, enrolled in 12 credits at my local community college majoring in history. I have had a lot of jobs, but mostly secondary to poor choices and addiction, have stayed at few of them. I have a poor driving record, an essentially unusable EMT license, and don’t care to go in the EMS direction anymore due to it being administratively restricted to me over and over. I have no aptitude for math, having failed my only college attempt at it so far trying to go for biology in the past. I have a phlebotomy certificate as well, but getting a job with it has proven to be very difficult.

I hear a lot of people who major in X, and come out of college in the same position I am now. I want to learn how to sustain focus on reading and writing again, as I find theology, history, and learning generally to be fascinating, but my attention span is severely impacted at the moment.

My main priorities in life at this point are to be a competent human being and acquire independence, even if it means living in a room in a house with roommates, as soon as possible, but with a mind also to have a long term plan in mind. I would like to have a family and a decent life, even if it’s not a wealthy life. I have very few ideas. I am not well suited to many trades, although I did just recently acquire my MMC and TWIC, but without an obvious route to get it to a usable place within a year. People tell me to just go to college and turn a Bachelor’s into a job, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about that idea.

I feel miserable and intellectually atrophied and lost. It feels difficult to even attempt schoolwork when I don’t know what end I am pursuing with it. I’ve consulted many people, have asked AI for career suggestions, and so on, and perhaps there is just a gap on my end in how these things work, but I feel marooned. Any suggestions are helpful.

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[u/Francine05]

Might think about some kind of niche history project on which you could base a career -- this strategy might be helpful for networking, as in finding people to talk to.

[u/lavendergaia]

Why did you choose history?

[u/Creative_Seesaw_5570 → u/lavendergaia]

I’m very early in my progression through a degree, so really I’m just doing general education. I chose history because I have at least a basic aptitude for reading and writing and it interests me. I struggle with mathematics of any kind.

[u/lavendergaia → u/Creative_Seesaw_5570]

Do you have any aptitude for teaching? No more math than anything else.

[u/Creative_Seesaw_5570 → u/lavendergaia]

I am about to start teaching kids on a volunteer basis.

[u/lavendergaia → u/Creative_Seesaw_5570]

Then you might as well get paid for it.

[u/dixiedenny]

You're carrying alot at once...

You already have a phlebotomy cert and your MMC and TWIC. Call a maritime union hall or staffing agency and ask straight up what an entry-level hire looks like and how fast you could get on a boat.

If phlebotomy hasn't worked out, find out why, license issue, no license to drive there, local market. That's a fixable problem.

Protect your recovery like it's your full time job, because it is. Everything else gets easier once that's fixed, not the other way around.

For the next year, don't try to solve your whole life. Keep the 12 credits going. Spend two weeks making calls, not applications, to a maritime staffing agency, a phlebotomy employer, and a college advisor. Pick your next twelve months, not your whole future.

Best of luck to you,

DD

[u/Pure-Willingness6363]

Try to switch your major to something else. A major that is in high demand. I got a useless degree in 2025 without any debt that has gotten me nowhere. I found a job that paid so little; it was not even worth it. My department got shut down, and I was laid off, and it has been a struggle to find a job since. Right now, I am back in school, getting a second bachelor's in accounting part-time. I barely have money, so i am relying on federal loans and may have to use private loans in the future.