I've lurked this community often for a couple years and learned a lot, got good advice here when my first real gf broke up with me. I think I am going through a quarter life crisis. Over the past year the decisions I made from ages 17-22 have started to haunt me. I was addicted to drugs, in particular opiates and those decisions are what is keeping me back today. Whether it be student loan debt due to dropping out of so many classes while I was high, lack of job experience, lack of friends, having to get on mood stabilizers, or missing out on various aspects of social life growing up due to body dysmorphic disorder and drugs. My ex-gf, my first serious girlfriend dumped me over the baggage I had in my hometown. I have been practicing game for a couple years and have made a lot of progress from a 23 year old virgin to having been with 30 women.
I'm 26 now and feel I have kind of failed, I moved to Vegas in May to game, start a career, and get a fresh start. I had no luck finding a job that payed more then $12 per hour even with an Economics degree that has put me 36k in the hole, didn't do that well in the Vegas nightclubs and was forced to come back home after a few months. I went from living in a gated apartment complex a block off the strip to being unemployed in my childhood bedroom in my parents home at age 26. Essentially I feel like I struck out. I currently have one real friend in my hometown that I can hit up on the weekends the other couple PUA friends I have live in Vegas or moved from my hometown to better places. I often go out alone to the bars and clubs in my hometown and it gets old. I don't even really know how to make friendships nowadays unless it is through pick up or game and there is only so many cool guys into that in a metro area of 900,000. I've tried reconnecting with old high school friends but I ruined those relationships when I was addicted to drugs and trying to reconnect is futile.
Last summer I graduated college finally, was in peak shape, started getting real results with game, was preparing for a trip to Colombia, I thought the world was mine, despite all those years of drug addiction I made it through and I'm a success. After Vegas and my lack of success both career wise and only doing OK with women there, I'm just thinking I need to get an entry level gig that pays 30k a year, pay off my student loans asap, and probably live in my hometown for the next 2-3 years to do so even if I despise this place and all the baggage I have in it. I even started playing World of Warcraft again to burn the time I have while I look for a job, which I got one this week doing IT support but its hardly the career job I was looking for. I have dreams of going abroad, I even got a CELTA in Colombia but I know I need to get rid of that debt first and why go abroad and make peanuts teaching ESL only to have to come back to the US and hurt your career. Game wise my entitlement is down with not having my own place and lack of career success and I'm not comfortable being 26 and bringing chicks over to my parents. Right now I feel like I failed though. Anyone who has been in similar situations, how'd you get out of it?
TLDR; 26 live in parents, hates hometown, feels like failure.
I'm 26 now and feel I have kind of failed, I moved to Vegas in May to game, start a career, and get a fresh start. I had no luck finding a job that payed more then $12 per hour even with an Economics degree that has put me 36k in the hole, didn't do that well in the Vegas nightclubs and was forced to come back home after a few months. I went from living in a gated apartment complex a block off the strip to being unemployed in my childhood bedroom in my parents home at age 26. Essentially I feel like I struck out. I currently have one real friend in my hometown that I can hit up on the weekends the other couple PUA friends I have live in Vegas or moved from my hometown to better places. I often go out alone to the bars and clubs in my hometown and it gets old. I don't even really know how to make friendships nowadays unless it is through pick up or game and there is only so many cool guys into that in a metro area of 900,000. I've tried reconnecting with old high school friends but I ruined those relationships when I was addicted to drugs and trying to reconnect is futile.
Last summer I graduated college finally, was in peak shape, started getting real results with game, was preparing for a trip to Colombia, I thought the world was mine, despite all those years of drug addiction I made it through and I'm a success. After Vegas and my lack of success both career wise and only doing OK with women there, I'm just thinking I need to get an entry level gig that pays 30k a year, pay off my student loans asap, and probably live in my hometown for the next 2-3 years to do so even if I despise this place and all the baggage I have in it. I even started playing World of Warcraft again to burn the time I have while I look for a job, which I got one this week doing IT support but its hardly the career job I was looking for. I have dreams of going abroad, I even got a CELTA in Colombia but I know I need to get rid of that debt first and why go abroad and make peanuts teaching ESL only to have to come back to the US and hurt your career. Game wise my entitlement is down with not having my own place and lack of career success and I'm not comfortable being 26 and bringing chicks over to my parents. Right now I feel like I failed though. Anyone who has been in similar situations, how'd you get out of it?
TLDR; 26 live in parents, hates hometown, feels like failure.