u/Anxious_Elk_

I'm still young, 22f. I'm currently doing my bachelors in architecture. I hate it, every single thing about it makes me unfulfilled and unhappy. I have a student job in an architecture firm. Despite my amazing coworkers, it is miserable and I hate it. I study hard and do my best and I am decent. But it's destroying me and I lost all my friends and hobbies due to my demanding schedule of being a full-time student and part-time employed.

My university is forcing me to do an internship as a worker on a construction site. We can choose which job we want. I didn't wanna do it; it felt like I was doing even more work to set myself up for an even unhappier future.

I chose to work for a painting company for 2 months. Turns out I love it. Every day I get up at 5 am and I am happy. I go to work and get my hands and arms dirty and I have never had so much fun at a job. My coworkers are great, the work is always different and relaxing, I'm getting a lot of movement, but the pay is horrible.

When I go home, I cry. I don't want to waste away in an office. But I feel like I was destined to be more than a low pay, low skilled worker. Don't get me wrong, I have great respect for the workers and their time and effort. But I have put myself through school, fought for good grades for all these years, worked hard to get into a position that would set me up for a job with decent to good pay. I thought that maybe if I slave away at a job I hate, maybe I would at least have enough money to be happy when I'm done. That's what anyone would do anyway, right?

I'm stuck and don't know what to do. My parents push for me to do my masters and just move on. My friends say it was a nice experience but now it's time for the real work. Just my boyfriend says to follow my heart and we'll figure it out. But I'm just so torn.

If you read this far, first of all: thank you. Also, what would you do in my position? Or have you been in a position like this before? How did you get out and do you regret it?