University was a big mistake, not sure where to go from here.

Going to university and everything leading up to it may have been the worst decision of my life. My higher education can be summed up as being a series of closing doors leading up to a path I never wanted. I was never sure what I wanted, and when I started to realise what I did want, I realised I'd left that option behind years ago.

So here I am, 20 years old, stuck in university and hating every aspect of it. And if my own mistakes weren't enough, the university has so far proven to be nothing but completely incompetent, and with such a small course and people talking of leaving, we might lose the course anyway.

I guess I just don't like academia. I like learning about things I care about, those things I learn and study for fun. It's not that I'm choosing to be somehow ignorant, it's just that the university path just doesn't seem to be for me.

I like practical things, I like making things and growing things. My real passion is brewing and my main goal is to raise the funds to start my own meadery. A years worth of regular work should give me what I need to get started without having to go into debt. So one option is to work for a year doing anything and then setting up shop. Other than that, I find most work that doesn't involve offices of pretence to be immensely satisfying. At the moment I work alone in a cold store packing vegetables, but I come home at the end of it feeling accomplished and satisfied, whereas I'm coming home from uni every day feeling like I wasted my time at best, or seething with anger at the worst.

I'm thinking I should have done agricultural college or something, steered down that route. I'd kill for farm work now, but I'm just not knowledgeable enough about the industry to be employable. I know the principles and have experience farming on a small scale, but nothing that is really applicable to a large scale operation, and nothing official. But, I mean, I'm 20, I can't be going back to college.

I've forced myself down this academic route and now I realised it was a mistake. I guess what I want to do is sidestep into the agricultural college path rather than having to backtrack, which just isn't really practical. I'd hate to think that my mistakes after GCSE when I didn't know what I want could now lock me on a road that I utterly hate. Seriously, I need a way out because this is really starting to effect me more than anything else ever has. Every day I start thinking about the future and it makes me feel defeated, because even the best case scenario that could come from doing this course isn't something I want. But frankly, I don't think I could even make the 3 years, and if I did, I'd be a mental wreck.

And alongside all this, I feel like this is the time in my life I'm supposed to be enjoying myself. But I just ****ing can't. I need to sort this out soon or I'm going to be pissing the 'best years' of my life away.

Going to university and everything leading up to it may have been the worst decision of my life. My higher education can be summed up as being a series of closing doors leading up to a path I never wanted. I was never sure what I wanted, and when I started to realise what I did want, I realised I'd left that option behind years ago.

So here I am, 20 years old, stuck in university and hating every aspect of it. And if my own mistakes weren't enough, the university has so far proven to be nothing but completely incompetent, and with such a small course and people talking of leaving, we might lose the course anyway.

I guess I just don't like academia. I like learning about things I care about, those things I learn and study for fun. It's not that I'm choosing to be somehow ignorant, it's just that the university path just doesn't seem to be for me.

I like practical things, I like making things and growing things. My real passion is brewing and my main goal is to raise the funds to start my own meadery. A years worth of regular work should give me what I need to get started without having to go into debt. So one option is to work for a year doing anything and then setting up shop. Other than that, I find most work that doesn't involve offices of pretence to be immensely satisfying. At the moment I work alone in a cold store packing vegetables, but I come home at the end of it feeling accomplished and satisfied, whereas I'm coming home from uni every day feeling like I wasted my time at best, or seething with anger at the worst.

I'm thinking I should have done agricultural college or something, steered down that route. I'd kill for farm work now, but I'm just not knowledgeable enough about the industry to be employable. I know the principles and have experience farming on a small scale, but nothing that is really applicable to a large scale operation, and nothing official. But, I mean, I'm 20, I can't be going back to college.

I've forced myself down this academic route and now I realised it was a mistake. I guess what I want to do is sidestep into the agricultural college path rather than having to backtrack, which just isn't really practical. I'd hate to think that my mistakes after GCSE when I didn't know what I want could now lock me on a road that I utterly hate. Seriously, I need a way out because this is really starting to effect me more than anything else ever has. Every day I start thinking about the future and it makes me feel defeated, because even the best case scenario that could come from doing this course isn't something I want. But frankly, I don't think I could even make the 3 years, and if I did, I'd be a mental wreck.

And alongside all this, I feel like this is the time in my life I'm supposed to be enjoying myself. But I just ****ing can't. I need to sort this out soon or I'm going to be pissing the 'best years' of my life away.

Okay first of all. Don't close doors yourself with the excuse that you're 20 and can't go back to college. You absolutely can. I took animal management at college, which involved farm work and they also did pure agriculture courses. And one of the guys on my course was in his late 30s and we were all good friends. Nobody else is shutting that door for you, only you. Don't make it more difficult for yourself by deciding an arbitrary cut off age point.

You didn't mention how long you have been at uni. But if you're not enjoying it just leave. You're not stuck there. You are deciding to stay even though you hate it. I get that things aren't perfect and you had wished you had taken a different route, but you didn't so now you have to do what you can to get onto a different route rather than complain about it and do nothing different.

Don't see going back to college as a "back track". By ignoring the opportunity of college (or any other opportunities) because it means "stepping back" all you are doing is stopping yourself from moving forward, which in the long run will cause you to be even further back than you are now. So stop.

Right now my most likely scenarios are sticking with it or leaving and getting a job to finance my business. If I drop out and go back to uni, I'll be 21 by the time I start. If all goes well, I'll be almost 24 by the time I can start working. That's just so terribly depressing. Others' suggestions of going to somewhere like Harper Adams are good, but committing to another 3 years of uni at 21 makes me sick to my stomach.

Honestly you're being plain ridiculous and melodramatic about the age.

If you want to start a business then great good for you, hope it works out. But you need to do a lot of research. A lot of business fail in their first year for a reason, don't let that be you.

Right now my most likely scenarios are sticking with it or leaving and getting a job to finance my business. If I drop out and go back to uni, I'll be 21 by the time I start. If all goes well, I'll be almost 24 by the time I can start working. That's just so terribly depressing. Others' suggestions of going to somewhere like Harper Adams are good, but committing to another 3 years of uni at 21 makes me sick to my stomach.

A meadery, that sounds like a promising business venture.

Perhaps it's because I live in Brighton, but I reckon you could definitely have a life for yourself making artisan mead

Sounds wonderful

Sounds like a honey-trap to me.