Regret #1

[InbetweenDreams]

While I certainly am not someone who went to an Ivy league school or anything like that I am puzzled that a school would forbid someone from going into a major they want to choose....that seems like a flawed methodology. I am sorry to hear that you were forced down a career path that you don't seem to be passionate about. Then again it is IT and people and bureaucracy often ruin it. Not sure what you do in IT but it can be a good career just depending on your interests. All in all I think we put far too much on expectations of teenagers, many kids today have no idea what they want to do or what they want out of life but we keep cramming standardized testing, aptitude tests and fligning career choices galore.

I also think experience should speak louder than grades, especially if you have been out of school for a while. I mean someone who's getting a job interview who has 15 years experience in a field related to the job, who cares what they did in college or went to college at all. You're really self-taught a lot of it anyway, especially software developers...You're really paying a school $30k a year to look shit up on StackExchange lol because you know the professor isn't going to do any of that, just that he had better had your work by whatever deadline.

Remember that talent is a pursued interest. So, chances are if it is something you like, you are likely to be more proficient at it. Also remember that do things because they interest you, not (only) because you're good at it, some advice from Kurt Vonnegut.

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of ‘getting to know you’ questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.
“And he went wow. That’s amazing! And I said, ‘Oh no, but I’m not any good at any of them.’
“And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: ‘I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.’
“And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could ‘win’ at them.”

Lastly... Sure, I think it is good to be humble for the most part, being grateful for what you have, what you have achieved and so on but does not mean you have to settle. It is never too late to do something so long as you're on the green side of the grass. For all we know we only get one ticket on this ride we call life so if you think it will bring you happiness take a chance. Personally, if I wanted to look back at things there's probably a lot of things I regret, like you, I wished I had took things more seriously, I wished I had been more social and took more chances and because I didn't I think it did hold me back but I don't let past bad choices dictate the remaining time I have. There are plenty of things to do in life that can bring me happiness, having the most money and the most shit isn't really one of them. Don't get me wrong I have a lot of crap but I don't have to have all of the things. I guess what I am trying to say is don't beat yourself up because you didn't do well in school or found that you didn't like something you put a lot of time into.