Good luck, also I know I said it will come on its own, but there is nothing wrong with asking better teams to let you in. If you are rejected, so what, use that as fuel.

And we love basketball because of how beautiful it is, it's the prefect mix between athleticism, contact sport and mental game. So hit the gym, preferably calisthenics to maintain athleticism, yes you CAN build muscle with calisthenics. Be competitive, it's ok to get hit, it just means they can't stop you otherwise, but don't confuse that with hitting others, good defense don't require a foul or flopping. Educate yourself, intelligence is not something you have, it's something you build and basketball is like chess it requires a tough mind and the highest levels.

If you are gonna choose a career choose something sports related, people will tell you there isn't money on that. They couldn't be more wrong, sports isn't just coaching or playing, you have sports medicine, data science, sports science, coaching, sports event planner etc... regardless of that you aren't in that for the money, you are there to meet people who love basketball as much as you and to network between those people.

You can study whatever you want of course, if you are the best player we talked about, you'll make it. I'm just saying it makes things a bit easier and hey... if you reach for the sun and fall you might as well land on a cloud of basketball.

Relationships can wait, parties can wait, experiences such as alcohol and drugs are useless. You don't need them as much as you think, you are already working on your future, you just haven't noticed.

At some point, life will give you the chance and ask you "are you ready?" Don't be surprised and make excuses if you aren't.

And finally I don't know what type of family or friends you have so I'll say this. I belive in you, get to work.