u/EchidnaNew916

I’m 22M and around 5’5”. About an hour ago, I went out for some work. As I was leaving my apartment gate, 2-3 girls who seemed to be returning from tuition were walking behind me.

While I was walking ahead, I heard one of them say, “isse lambi toh mai hu” and then all three started laughing.

The thing is, just 7 days ago I got placed in a really good company and had been feeling genuinely happy and confident about where my life was heading. But hearing that comment suddenly hit me harder than I expected, and my mood has been off since then.
“Pata hai aaj kya hua”

I’m 23 years old and honestly feeling very confused about my career and future.
After 10th I scored around 67%. Then I took commerce in 12th, but during that time I got heavily into gaming and wanted to pursue it professionally. Because of that, I dropped school around 3 months before my 12th boards without properly informing my parents.
When my parents found out, things became very difficult at home. Later my father suggested that I do a diploma in Civil Engineering, and I agreed without really thinking much because at that time I had no interest in studies or career planning.
During the last year of diploma, I realized professional gaming was not for me, so after diploma I took admission into BTech CSE through lateral entry. Right now I’m in the final year of BTech from a tier 3 college, and placements here are very bad. My CGPA is 7+.
The problem is:
I don’t feel academically very strong.
My career path feels very messed up.
I keep comparing myself with people who had a normal path.
I’m scared I may have ruined my future because of wrong decisions earlier.
At the same time, I genuinely want to improve my life now. I’m considering:
tech jobs/off-campus preparation,
government exams,
or maybe MS abroad after gaining some experience.
I want honest suggestions from people who were once confused or had non-linear careers:
Is my profile still recoverable career-wise?
What would you do if you were in my situation?
Should I focus on skills/job first or prepare for higher studies?
Is MS abroad realistic with my background?
Any advice would genuinely help. Thanks for reading.

I never really made close friends in college, so I mostly stayed alone during hostel life.

During Diwali break the hostel and canteen were almost empty. One night I was eating alone in the canteen, scrolling on my phone, when I randomly looked up and saw a girl sitting at the table in front of me already looking at me. We made eye contact for a few seconds and from that day I started noticing her everywhere 😭

After that we’d randomly make eye contact in the canteen or on college roads pretty often. Then near the end of 2nd year the biggest moment happened.

I was standing in the canteen queue with my roommate and she was standing directly in front of me, maybe 1 meter away. Suddenly she turned back, looked straight at me and smiled while holding eye contact for what felt like 20 seconds.

And I completely fumbled
Didn’t smile back, didn’t say hi, just looked down and broke eye contact like an coward.

After that things got awkward because whenever we crossed paths I’d get nervous and avoid eye contact. We were from different departments too, so canteen was the only place I really saw her.

Then in 3rd year Facebook randomly recommended her account to me. I gathered all my courage and sent her a friend request at midnight 😭
Next afternoon I noticed she didn’t accept it, so out of embarrassment I revoked it myself.

Now we’re in final year, classes barely happen and I don’t even live in the college city anymore. Recently I saw her again after a long time and my heart still started pounding like crazy.

The funny thing is back then I never even thought this deeply about any of it because I was busy surviving college and worrying about placements. But now I’m finally placed and suddenly my brain has free time, so all these old moments keep replaying in my head 😭

Sometimes I genuinely wonder if I fumbled the best chance I ever had or if I just overthink too much.

Also yes, I took help from ChatGPT to write this properly because my overthinking is better than my storytelling skills

Was stretching outside college today and apparently my shirt lifted up a bit and my underwear strap showed .
At the same time my crush and her friends were passing by. I didn’t even realize until my friend told me later that she probably saw it .
Now I’m wondering if that makes me look weird/cheap or if I’m just overthinking a normal awkward moment.

I’m in my final year and honestly I feel depressed about almost every aspect of my life. Not placed yet, no real social/college life for the last 3 years, mostly just staying alone in my room. I also have a huge crush on a girl in college but never had the courage to talk to her or confess. Sometimes I end up checking her profile from an alt account like a coward and then overthink everything all night. My mental health keeps getting worse and I can’t even talk about this stuff with my close friends because as a guy I feel like I’ll look weak. Don’t really know what to do anymore.