Going back to university college is going to be so much fun

It may take a few years before I go back because I am not taking out student loans this time. I am going to enjoy my university experience this time. I want it to be online for the programs but also add an internship for older adults. I can do remote internships as well. I found several programs I am going to keep my eyes on that are still relatively affordable. I am not going to rush through it and this will be my second chance to get things right. School is something to take seriously but it is also something that should be enjoyed for the experience. I just wanted the end goal over a decade ago and was miserable at my campus. I felt socially isolated because I wasn’t making close friends like I wanted. I expected to make at least one or two friends that I hung out with regularly with similar values by the first semester as a transfer student there from my classes alone. I was also academically disengaged because most of my classes were tests and there was not enough experiential learning like projects and writing based assignments and also I shouldn’t have picked mid morning classes as I wasn’t fully alert at that hour. Most of my classes were early afternoon to mid afternoon but a couple were mid late morning. I shouldn’t have taken four to five classes at once because it was overwhelming. I would have done better with one or two courses at at time in an accelerated format to really dive deep into the courses or asynchronous and self paced/competency based modules in a linear fashion instead of being all over the place. I should have joined a student club or interned to get more out of my experience. I was very depressed that I was also being talked about because others thought I had an affair with my young teaching assistant. I did not. I was honestly expecting a more welcoming campus community because I am a more social introvert. I also needed to see the end point or the big picture of why I was attending college and to be honest I felt my learning was taking too long when I just wanted to get it over with to get a job. It was a poor attitude to have. I didn’t like having to stop my life to attend in person classes either. I also would have liked more one on one mentorship or small group mentorship as well from faculty members. Well now I know what went wrong for me the first time. Once I felt disengaged.and isolated, I slipped into a depression and stopped caring about my grades getting put on academic probation and instead of coming back to finish one to two more years again. I dropped out of college. Big mistake to do that but I was miserable there. Now I miss college and all the potential opportunities I could have had. Instead of working crappy jobs and not getting anywhere with freelancing in jobs I was no good at except for pet sitting and dog walking but who am I kidding the local teens could do that job and I was not getting enough clients to make a decent income. I should have stayed in school finished my Bachelors. Taken some skills courses in languages and technology to diversify my resume and then went for my masters degree a couple of years later. I wasted a perfectly good opportunity. I only got an associates from a junior college. It is not enough for me. I need more opportunities that being a student will provide again and then later as a recent graduate.