I am 23 years old. I have a wonderful family and a girl friend of 5 years which I will be marrying some day. I get along with her family and everything in my relationship is great.

I am scared about my own future with jobs and career. This year my girlfriend graduates college. I waited so long to go that I am still 2-3 years away from earning just my associates. I don't know what to go to school for. I have tried things that interested me but I become bored so fast with it. Or I scare myself out of it. What makes me worry is that Im here lagging behind , and meanwhile she's graduating. I never did well in high school and almost failed my senior year. I do pretty good at the community college but its still hard for me to get into it like other better students do. I take online classes because in most cases, large class rooms get me so anxious I don't focus on the class, I only focus in the fear of being called on, or turning red when I get embarrassed, or just everything that could go wrong.

I feel pressure to have a great job so we can afford to live in overpriced America. I just feel like I have wasted so much time after high school and that I don't know what to do to progress my future work life. I don't have a lot of money so I hate to even consider transferring to a 4 year institution after I earn an associates degree. So I have been limiting myself to looking at Associates Degree and really don't have any plans for a Bachelors. I also fear all the stress of going through 4-5 years to obtain a Bachelors because I watched my girlfriend go through college and I always thought" wow Im glad I dont have to do all that right now". So here I am, still trying to decide. Maybe I don't have an exact question to ask, but I needed to vent. I can't bring this up to her all the time because then it brings her down and she graduates in a month. At the graduation Ill feel left back because I graduated a year earlier then her from high school, and I feel so far behind in life.. .

Well first what type of interests do you have, if you love what you do, then most days you will not feel like you are really working. There is always days.

Next if you find a job you like without college, there is always that.
Do you like sales, there are tons of sales jobs, industrial equipment, medical supplies, insurance, there is great jobs in construction, electrical, pipe fitter. Do you have interest in law enforcement

The main thing is finding a job you like above all things

Maybe college really isn't for you. Like once you graduate you are not guaranteed a job even though schools say they will help place you once you graduate they do not always do that.
Also with many careers more people are graduating with a degree in whatever than there are jobs available. Then you have the school loan you have to start paying back which takes a good $150. Per month.
Think about what you are good at and what you really see yourself doing and see if you can get into the job without school even if you have to start at the bottom and work your way up.
Try going to a union and see if they have on the job training like a construction union.
My son got in with a building company that builds the sub divisions and they were teaching him to drive the back hoe and other equipment. You can work your way up to a really good paying job with that.

Well I actually had the idea to get my associates degree in veterinary technology. This wouldn't allow me to be a vet but more like a veterinary nurse. The only issues that had me always thinking about this is that the pay isn't always the best and there's not always room for complete advancement. On the plus side, the career has excellent rate of job openings and growth. I wanted to do something that I felt good about but also would earn enough. I have still been debating this, but I think it worried both me and my girlfriend about if it would be worth it in the long run because its not a very open ended degree. I tried the program about 2 years ago, but jumped into it to quickly. I was offered an internship the very same semester I started the vet program at college and it all seemed to happen so quickly that I couldn't keep up. I still consider a career with animals.

I work in retail pt right now. I've learned a lot about myself though with retail. Well no, I don't enjoy sales, but I do enjoy feeling important and helping people. If I feel needed and important at a job then it makes it worth walking in there. I guess I had it in my head that since I was so new at the veterinary hospital I felt so useless, I never gave it a chance and I never learned anything. At my retail position, I have been there over a year and learned a lot so they depend on me many times to do things and I feel important. I sometimes forget that everyone starts at the bottom and has to move up. Sometimes I just want to take an elevator to the top and just hop off and continue my work. I'm not lazy , I just lose motivation quickly because I over think everything and get scared.

I feel that I could possibly find a job without college but that it would be hard. I sometimes feel like I go to college just to make everyone else get off my case about it, but wonder if its worth it. I don't believe college is the only answer to a happy career. I would like to consider a career helping other people out as well but I'm not sure where to start.

That could be good because not only helping dogs and cats you could work for a humane society or the zoo or get a job in the country helping farm animals. Or you could work with race horses. Or you could maybe even work with people that rescue animals.
Like I hear on the news all the time about a woman had 100 cats and they were mal nourished and many died. Right now in my area a woman is having a hearing for having a tiger farm where a lot of the tigers died. They mean well but they get in over their heads.
Pet-Abuse.Com - Animal Abuse Case Details: Hoarding 450 cats - Tarentum, PA (US)

Remember it is not always the money, I seldom tell the story, I made well over 100,000 back in the mid 80's, had a lake house on Lake George NY ( 5 bedroom) had a live in nanny for the kids, my wife was a professional and had a good income for that time frame 40,000 or so.
I drove a custom trans am ( I miss that car)

But guess what yes I got to ski on Lake Placid, work into the city on major projects, fly in the company chopper and plane.
Would sound like you had the top of the world, on the outside everything you were suppose to be for a up and coming corp exect.

And I moved to be a young VP of a major leather company. But guess what, no one was happy, I was always on business, was not me

I left that life after a major accident and went to South GA to do what I wanted to do. Making less than 1/4 of what I made back them.
I found that if you do what you love, you will be happy, and no matter what you earn, most people end up spending that level, if they earn less they learn to live on less. So maybe you will not have week vacations to Veil, but your day to day happiness will be a lot more.

I agree
I only do what I enjoy and even though I do not have much money I don't have to deal with the aggravation of a job I hate. I can live as good as somebody that makes $60, a year and I make less than $24, a year.
It is all about how you manage your money. If you do like many Americans and live above your means then you are poorer than somebody that can live on less and happy with little. Many people have to have the 250,000 house and the latest 2008-9 car and work themselves to death trying to stay out of foreclosures, repo's and collection agencies.

I think you should start your own business, a sole proprietorship.

You could start with a hauling business and get to know what way you could make some money in the building trades or home care trades. Knowledge is power, mix with all kinds of employed men and get to know what goes on in the real world.

You're too old to go to school... you're in danger of failing at life.

OK collage should be for everyone I know that you can't find a career but there can and will be a few careers in your life start simple and work your way up get reputation and things will go all right and yes the usa is overpriced but its just something you just have to deal with all you can do is get a job no matter what it is and at least try to put food on the table don't let yourself feel bad because it might feel like your not doing enough but just do eveerything you can try your hardest to take care of your family and in my mind I wouldn't care if I had to live in a dump as long as I had a family and some people who care about me and kids getting to see their smile and being able to look into my gfs eyes everymorning. You see think about those things let the smiles and happy times get you to where your going follow your heart not your gut sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do and well when I was little my dad worked in a lumber mill he just started and he was pulling green chain he hated every minuite of it he hated to be there but all he did was thing about the family he was doing all of it for and it pushed him to keep moving forward he never gave up so you shouldn't even if you scare yourself off
Give you and your family the best wishes and I will pray for you tonight. Bye