A bachelor's doesn't get anyone anywhere anymore. I was helping my friend, who just finished her BSW, look for jobs yesterday. Basic front-line entry work requires a freakin' MSW. And the pay is humiliating for that amount of education, time and money spent. This world ****ing depresses me.
I am in the same boat as you right now, tokiwartooth. Normally I am okay, just kind of meandering through life but right now I'm trying to choose a direction and all I can do is be bitter about the wasted years (I'm 34, graduated high school with honors 17 years ago). Now I'm heading into some kind of episode - I feel like it's depression; I've been cancelling all my plans for all of next week so I can stay home because I can't bring myself to go anywhere or be around anyone - and it's all just making it seem so much bigger and more confusing and immediate than it actually is.
I'm torn between something I love - which would require pursuing a degree - or something that may be okay, and could be really enjoyable and rewarding if I got the right job (which I have no idea what the odds of that are) but will pay crappily even if I do go all the way to a bachelor's with it. I'd have to get a master's or PhD.
At the same time I feel like the world is spinning out of control, and I'm feeling more and more paralyzed. I know it doesn't help to focus on things I can't change, and yet it seems to be the only thing I can focus on lately.
I hope you get through this, that it passes for you, as for us all.