I am also approaching my 4th year of studies. I have been going to school half time, as I was taking care of my very ill life partner for the past 3 years. He passed away in November, and I struggled like crazy to finish that semester, than jumped into the Spring semester, and that was the hardest school has ever been. My partner was gone and I felt it all meaningess, and couldn't focus, and thought I was lazy and beat myself the heck up. I really had to take the summer off, and felt guilty for that. My thoughts toward school in the fall right now is vascillating at best.
With me it is a matter of re-establishing my life, and re-examining my goals. I have already done the career development class at the begining of my studies, but maybe it is time to go over these goals. Maybe something has shifted in me and I am not being true to my inner self? I don't know, but in the time I have taken off, that is what I should do. I look at it as exploration and expansion, rather than veering off a self-set path.
Also, I need to make or forge my own niche somehow while learning.
One thing I have done to kind of accomplish this is create a portfolio online of my favorite and most challenging essay papers, and my personal writing. Sometimes I go there and it refreshes my interest, or brings some of the exhilaration I first had in the learning process.
It also provides clues as to where I really want to go. For instance in reading what I have written on life histories of animals, I am forever enthralled (I am a Natural History major).
I dabble in different ways these are expressed, and in the research to integrate the information I gathered to come up with my essay exam answers, and lo and behold come up with the idea that I love and thrive off of the illustrative (in tandom with writing) components of learning things...so I embark on an experimental nature journaling project this summer...and guess what..I am good at this.
It may not be what I end up making a living doing, but it sure refuels my interest, hopefully when Fall semester starts, I will be refreshed.
For me it is not just muscleing up and pushing through, though... that is what I did last semester, and felt I learned nothing. I had to review my efforts, good and bad, in last semesters essays, and find the common theme that attached me to this vein of studies in the first place (life histories of animals)...then find a creative way to express it (illustrated journal).
But the main thing is I had to take a break to get to this point, and am still assessing my path for the Fall, so staying open to possibiities. Truth is I feel a little divided right now...well...no...a lot divided, and am afraid I will self sabatage. Decisions are hard right now as I feel at a juncture where everything I do will effect me forever, and I am afraid.
Many people here have given you key advice as they too have been at similar junctures and worked through. I like you am in the midst of it all. Maybe I can lend a little hope to you if only by way of being in a similar state at the same time. Good luck to you.