Lost at 27: Regret, Career Confusion, and Feeling Left Behind

Guide me, my life is a mess. I'm 27, yet I haven't achieved anything in my life. I want to settle down now, yet I feel so stuck. I made some mistakes in the past and wasted a lot of time.

I chose medical as my major field in 11th and 12th (high school) because I always felt math was too hard and didn’t like it. But after that, I started learning programming and game development by myself because I found it interesting, and I was really into tech (mobile phones, their hardware, and whatnot). Because of this, my focus shifted from my education. I failed multiple times and got low grades—so low that I couldn’t even get admission to a university.

A lot of things happened in between. Mostly, I learned Unity game development and gained a lot of knowledge, but I couldn’t create a final product because game development is a hard field that combines multiple disciplines. And in the end, four years were wasted. Wasting those four years is my biggest regret—something I cannot remove from my mind now.

After that, I took admission in the field of psychology on self-finance, which I actually like—especially the clinical and neuro side of it. I enjoy it. But this field takes too long. I recently completed my MSc (Hons), but to get a good paying job, I have to do at least an MPhil (in my country, you need it to start practicing in this field), which means two more years.

In university, all my friends were younger than me—20 to 22 years old. One of them, at a very young age, started his own software houses (no scams, his company really does develop websites, Twitch stickers, banners—real stuff). He got well settled, has his own car (a Civic 10th gen, which in my country is considered a very big achievement), and overall doesn’t have financial issues—he’s living his best life (Mashallah, may God give him more). These friends usually make fun of me because of my age and because most of them are getting married or are in healthy relationships, while I have always been rejected. I don’t mind that they make fun—it’s all just joking, that’s how friends’ groups are.

But now, I feel like a loser. Now I work in one of his software houses—he gave me a job so I can learn about freelancing and start something on my own because I’ve been trying to break into it for some time to make some money. But I’ve no success in it either so far.

But now I really don’t know what to do—how to bring my life on track. My biggest problem is that I don’t have much time. I’m already 27, and I want to do something that helps me settle once and for all, but I don’t have time to keep switching.

I know it’s all my fault—I messed up. But now I feel like I’m stuck in a corner, and all the walls are closing in. I cannot decide anything. what should I do?