I really don't know what I am going to do with my life. I can only distract myself with school for another year, and then what? I don't know how I will ever be able to support myself. I doubt I ever will be able to. I'm just really scared. I'm not good at anything, so I don't have any direction to take with school, I don't have a job, and the whole idea of working is extremely intimidating to me. I just don't know what it going to happen, and it is scaring me shitless. I essentially only have one more year of life, and then, god knows what. If I go on to tertiary education, I will fail miserably, and the whole thing will be a huge waste of time and money. If I get a job and start working full time, how does the rest of my life look? How many 17 year old full time workers are there? Not many, if any at all. And how many of them have any success in life? I would have to say somewhere between none, and none. I just don't know what to do. People tell me to make these decisions, but how am I supposed to decide what I will do if all the options ruin my life? I have no skills, no good qualities at all, so I won't be able to do anything with my life. I won't have a life. I will be some bum, who gets to choose between being supported by his parents for the rest of his life, or living in the gutter, begging to feed himself, until he finally starves to death.
In the US, we have several vocational education programs, where you go to school much more cheaply than tertiary ed and learn a trade rather than getting a degree. You might wanna check and see if Australia has anything like that. See if you can talk to a vocational counselor.
Life can be intimidating but you've got to try hard. Think about what it is that you really really want to be doing, and work towards achieving that, and most importantly, choose carefully and stick with it till you've done it. Unless you have a disability of some sort, I believe you can achieve anything you set your mind to. The fear of learning or fear of working is irrational, you've got to keep telling yourself that. (!) I think its wonderful that you already have a clear goal to not be a bum. Every morning when I wake up and all I want to do is to sleep more or chill around the house and not go to work, I just think of how I would not even have a roof if I did not go.
Okay, look. Hardly anyone is working their "dream job" right now. The economy just isn't at the point that it really allows for that yet. So you really don't have that much pressure to choose a job. You're pretty much going to have to snatch whatever job you can reasonably work once you graduate. But wherever you end up for employment, pretty much the only things you need to do to get ahead in the workplace are sincerity and a friendly, cooperative attitude. As long as you're friendly, you try hard, and you're not a pain in anyone's ass, a lot of people will give you a break. One thing I'd advise is to totally go to college if you possibly can. I know it might seem like a waste of time, but it will give you extra time to figure out what you want to do and pad your resume (either through internships, jobs, or nonprofit work). As cutthroat as the job market is right now, you need every opportunity to make yourself look good. Also, you might want to do some reading up on assessing your values, cataloguing the sort of things that you like, and figuring out what sort of things you want to ultimately do with your life. This will help you choose a career path so you can take classes that a) you can do well in and b) won't absolutely bore you to death. Try Googling "goal management", "making goals", etc...and I'd also advise you to check out some personal development blogs, like the ones found on LifeRemix and The Happiness Project. I know it sounds hokey, but a lot of those articles are really insightful and can help you start thinking positively about the rest of your life. Good luck! (*hug*)
You dont have to decide as soon as you finish school. You can take a year out just working in some supermarket or something and make your decision that year there. It is scary doing new things and working in new places but you'll soon get used to it. Write out and print your CV (I will help you if you need it) and go around every single suitable work place you can think of giving your CV out (even if they dont want it: "I'll just leave it here with you guys anyway"), getting application forms and getting their work phone number so you can ring them up and bug them every day until they give up and give you a job. I know how you feel because I'm going to have to make the same decision at the end of this school year too. I've never been very good at school and will likely end up working some low paid job for the rest of my life but your job isnt everything and, you never know, if you apply to some classier jobs you might get them (but you'll never know if you dont try).
