What something you wish you had done during your 20's?

My advice for picking a degree: pick something that you want to do, but also something marketable. The degree is useless if you can't get a job in it.

If you're worried about college being difficult, it can be, but 95% of your success is going to be based on motivation. I was a TA in college, and the best students were the ones that asked questions, came to office hours, and participated. I saw many a "smart kid" bomb a test due to overconfidence.

If you're not sure what to do, you can start with general education credits or even do the first part of your degree at a community college to save money. A lot of times a 2 year associates degree will serve as the first 2 years of a bachelor's.

As others have stated here, CS might be a good fit for you. I don’t have ADHD, but I’m neurodivergent, above average intelligence, and easily bored. I also know that, for me, work is absolutely shit. CS has allowed me to have an endless array of related skills to veer off into side quests, projects, whatever you want to call them. It keeps me from stagnating and the pay can be enough motivation to show up.

+1 on water flossers! I got a Smile brand one because it was a decent price and it works great.

"I don't know anything about your problem with the military but you're wrong to blame the military for it" yeah, checks out as a typical response - lol.

My buddy is trying to get me to go to the VA to see if they'll pay for my CPAP machine until the recent burn pit bill which I definitely qualify for. I just really don't want to deal with the VA.

It's actually more like three, but for one woman, that counts as a flock.

I took three years of Spanish at my High School, and at 16 years old, went to Costa Rica for three weeks as a Foreign exchange student. I hosted an exchange student in my second year from Costa Rica. We become very good friends and penpals! It was the only time in my life I was outside the USA. I lived with a host family for two weeks, and the last week I stayed with the family I had hosted my second year.

Besides the obvious language immersion and attending a high school there. I also went on the planned trips. It was amazing! Went to the rain forest twice. Walking tour on 1, gondola ride along the canopy on 2nd. Saw a volcano erupt, went white water rafting in the rain forest. Both of my host families also took me to various locations that they liked too. Saw coffee fields, and beaches etc.

I also did stupid shit (I was 16yrs old so… obviously I did stupid shit). Examples are… went out to bars and clubs with my host sibling, (my passport did say I was 16, but they didn’t deny me from buying alcohol or cigarettes etc). That was fun then, but as a parent and an adult now.. I realize just how dangerous it was. As a passenger in cars there… it was terrifying. They drove so Fucking fast! And there were literally livestock in the middle of the highways sometimes.. and they didn’t slow down.. they just steered around and beside these huge animals like it was a “frogger” game… 😬

All in all though… it was a memorial experience. And I don’t regret going.

I had the chance to go to Wales for a semester during college, but was too nervous. In retrospect, that would've been cool as shit.

We had some exchange students from their end of the program and they were all lovely folks.

It doesn't even need to be a degree, honestly. You could go learn a trade. There are many trades that pay much more than many white-collar desk jobs. I'd say check out your local community college, trade school, or similar to see if anything looks interesting. Contact them and request more information or even a tour if something does. Regardless of the route you take, you definitely want to learn some sort of marketable skill. Also, there's nothing wrong with pursuing a career that's just tolerable or boring, but pays the bills. You can seek fulfillment outside of work.

As far as not knowing what to go for at 21, I just worked after graduating high school at 18, and it wasn't until I was 23 that I decided to go back to school.

Not the guy you asked, but: to make money. Obviously the more money you have the more you make, but 10% return is 10% return. Anyone can invest and it's a wise financial decision that can really pay off, especially if you start while young

Individual stocks is probably a bad idea (since that's basically gambling), but investing in something like broad-market index funds in a retirement account is better sooner rather than later. Since the stock market roughly doubles every 10yrs, your money is worth a lot more when you're young, hence "I wish I did this in my 20s"

While it doesn't necessarily need to be stocks, investing early will greatly reduce your financial burden later down the road if you want to save for retirement. Check out the cost of waiting:
https://www.primerica.com/public/high-cost-of-waiting.html

Compound interest. Buy into a total market index fund that will get you more or less 7% on average a year. Let’s say you have a $100 extra per month (doesn’t actually matter whatever you can afford).

Sally from age 20-30 puts her $100 in every month. At the end she has about $16000. She stops adding anything, but keeps that money invested. By 65 she has $170k.

Jeff doesn’t start investing until he’s 30, but he’s consistent and does the same thing, $100 a month from 30-65. He ends up with about $165k.

What that means is Sally made more money than Jeff even though she did the same thing for 10 years that he did for 35. She just started earlier.

Time in the market > timing in the market every time.

I think better advice would be "invest/save" in general. You could just throw money into a mutual fund, index fund, savings account, whatever. If you get a job with an employer matched 401k, max that out. I don't think you need to worry about trying to play the stock market by buying individual stocks. You'll end up spending way too much time doing it for minimal gains over an index fund, and a lot of the time you're just basically gambling on what companies you think are going to do well.