Not to know what to do with my life?!

[LittleRedTealight]

Just that really.

I'm 23. I'm coming to the end of my degree, and I have not the foggiest idea what to do next! I don't know whether I want to continue in the relationship I'm in (that's another story, I've posted on Relationships about it previously...), I don't know where I want to live or what job I want to do.

I have a place on an MA course, due to start in September, but my brain is so muddled at the moment that I'm not sure if it's really what I want to do at all.

How did you all decide which direction to take in your lives? And how do you learn to actually make decisions, rather than dithering and not deciding on a course of action because you keep wondering, regardless of what you actually choose, whether you'll regret it further down the road?

Watch reality bites.

There's a good quote in it about being 23.

I have now retired, but have had two very distinct careers. The first was related to my degree, and after 25 years I decided that they had had the best of me and I was getting stale; so I retrained in a career that was fun and stimulating and gave me 12 good years to look back on.

I suppose what I am saying is that you can pursue one career, then jump off the wheel and start again. It is a financial risk (and one that I took when the children were still fully dependent on us) but you only have one life. Rather than being annoyed at the drop in our financial state, my gang of DDs have always said that they saw it as an example to them that you can swap around and follow new directions.

I think that you should not be worried about what to do next - you are totally normal for your age - get out there and try a bit of this and that. But as to the relationship: if he is not right for you then you do not want to be tied for the rest of your life, or tied during some of your best years.

Op, leaving my 6 year relationship was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I so nearly didn't and I shudder to think what a shit life I'd have had if I stayed.

Ditch the relationship.

Do the MA, but in another country.

Thank you, everyone. I feel quite emotional, you're all being so lovely.

To all the PPs saying that you've left long teenage relationships too, it's hard isn't it? But I feel that I've maybe outgrown the relationship and I ought to go off and do something new. There are other reasons why it's not really right, but this on its own might be reason enough to leave?

As for doing the MA abroad, I thought about deferring so that I could have a year out and come back to studying, or at least doing a summer school abroad before I start in September. Really, the more I think about it, the more exciting all of these opportunities are. I think I'm just having a wobble.

Thank you all again, you're all so kind.

Travel and be single in your twenties. You will be considerably better looking in your early thirties, promise, more educated in every way and more likely to pick the right man