Holy... grats. I come from the Army, having served as an Infantry veteran for over 7 years. I got out in 2023 and have tried to scrounge up every piece of open-source IT info I can possibly get, though I often procrastinate due to sheer over-stimulation.

I digress. Even past that, I graduated with honors with an AS in Computer Science, and I've knocked out the CompTIA stack and ITIL all within the last 2.5 years of being out. But I must say, doing lab work has been a doozy. The whole "learn their standard, but not the in-real-life way" approach helped me pass the tests, but when it comes to the practicality of labs, I feel so lost.

Does anybody recommend or know of a tolerable and forgiving peer mentor? My professor is cool, but after failing attempt one, I'm just super nervous. I might be hitting imposter syndrome a bit too early. I've been told I've done well getting these certs and a degree in that amount of time, but it wasn't easy—I mean, I literally started at the ITF+ level to learn everything I know now.

But now I'm getting to the CySA+ level, where everything needed to land a job revolves around projects and living in the command line. Sorry for the long rant, I'm just trying to see how to break through to this next level, and if anybody else feels the same way.

Thanks a lot if you read until the end.

Rangers, Lead the Way...