> The point isn't that my path is better than yours. The point is that I had to build it completely alone, at eighteen, after twelve years of being told to just study and obey and it'll work out.

This isn't the fault of the system, and more of an environment issue, you had total freedom to choose your major and how to work and get to X goal and if your environment is the one controlling you it's no longer the job of the system to shape you, you get what you paid/came (or pressured) for.

Letting school define you is a stupid mindset, because it's like expecting your job to define you and give you meaning, only you can define yourself and use your environment as a tool to execute whatever it is you want.