Did you miss the
crone part? Hawt, hawt, hawt, but in a "Mrs. Robinson except doesn't care for young'uns" sort of way.
I suppose so but I have a mortgage to pay. I worked pretty hard to get where I am and I’d feel like I’d failed if I dropped back to where I started (tbh even the job I had in those days at entry level is really stressful these days…)
It’s not just work. There’s a lot of other stuff that’s cumulatively piling up on me. Sorting it would require destroying people’s lives. Staying where I am will kill me. What do? I dunno. A couple of the blocks are genuinely intractable without serious money or people doing very specific things. Sorry to be vague, I can’t PL about it but if I do do something drastic I’m gonna need that salary
Maybe pick one problem to solve. (And yes, this is, "do as I say, not as I do" advice, so it's hard*, but good.)
* like you, I can't avoid seeing the cascading effects of decisions. But also maybe like you, I also know what it's like when everything is knit together so hard that any move feels like a tourniquet around the neck...but also that inaction is its own neck tourniquet.
now I'm in my early 20s and I'm aware I will start getting wrinkles and look different after 25, maybe 30 taking Asian genes into account...
JFC, lines didn't meaningfully change my looks until after 50. No, I haven't made my living on my face, but my face has been an asset in general. And unless you're banking on looking like a child not even old enough to drink (maybe you are), then "aging" isn't a concern for a few decades from now for you.
Right now, sounds like you have a lot of options - education, a house in a few years. If you don't have a particular passion for any kind of work, then go to the best school you can get into for something with good prospects and put all your effort into it and into the job you get after. Alternatively, just try a bunch of things and see what sticks.
In your wildest dreams, what would you do?
And ABSOLUTELY get a drivers license. ASAP. Driving is freedom.