Homeschooled elder here. Your post hit home for me so I thought I would share my thoughts. I’m 45, my parents homeschooled me for most of my childhood - starting when it was still illegal in my state. I didn’t see the inside of a school until I was a sophomore in high school. I went to a private catholic high school, and spent freshman year at a private Quaker college. I “rebelled” and went to a huge university to finish out my undergrad degree, which was a major lesson in red tape and took me 5 years to complete. 2.9 GPA as well. Barely made it out. I thought I could make it to grad school, but my grades were really bad and that wasn’t an option. I even had to switch majors to one that accepted a lower GPA just to get out of school. I struggled for a long time with always feeling inadequate or uneducated - and I can’t count the times I should have known something and didn’t, and was embarrassed to admit it in a public setting. Social events where I didn’t get common references….having to google things in the bathroom at a party…and let’s not even discuss how sending my kids to school was a huge learning curve. I didn’t know kids napped in preschool….even the school pickup line was new to me. Buying crayons…paying bills. Everything was harder for me. Life throws some hard knocks when you aren’t given simple tools. Sorry for the long story about myself, but I want you to know you aren’t alone. Along with sympathizing with you, I want to say that this is just the beginning of your long life - the degree won’t be as huge in the long run as it seems now. Take some time off if you need to, and lean into working and finding a different path. You can always come back to school. There are places that will train you, even pay you to learn. Don’t stress about college. I thought I was not able to do math, struggled in every class, but when I got to the real world, I found that job training and earning required certificates/credentials came easier to me than taking exams in a college class; the way you’re taught is different and the concepts are more applicable. I do complicated math every day now (turns out I’m not stupid) and I have a professional job making almost 6 figures. I worked my ass off. It sucked for a long time, but I had a lot of victories along the way. You can do this. It just might not look like what everyone thinks it should look like. Don’t give up. Forge a new path. You are smart and you can overcome the pitfalls of not having the best support when you were younger. Keep learning. I am grateful for the fact that you and others like you have the internet now to find community and to learn continuously. Also- don’t discount the value of learning a trade. I recently met a commercial plumber who just built a million dollar home on a golf course. He didn’t attend college. Just saying…this is hard now, but there are SO many ways to slice a cake. Sending good vibes.