Sitting Bull, let me give you some advice. You WILL make more mistakes, lots of them. Get used to it. What is vitally important is how you RECOVER from your mistakes. If you cry your eyes out for months you are wasting time. What’s done is done. Furthermore, we operate with perfect hindsight and castigate ourselves for “mistakes” that couldn’t be avoided because we didn’t have foreknowledge of what happened next. It’s axiomatic in neurolinguistics that people make what they think is the best decision based on what they know at the time. How could you know about Covid when you started flying?
I agree, university is a waste of time if you want a meal ticket, you will end up working for the same creeps you worked for in aviation. What are your passions? What are you good at? Forget the money, that comes later. Get out and network. Talk to everyone, anyone, you will be surprised what you learn. Watch the movie “Kenny” there is money even in crap. A relative was a personal trainer, she got tired of paying for certain beauty products. She now is building her own brand quite successfully. Two male friends my age just sold their businesses. However their customers won’t let them retire. They have both started new businesses. My daughter in law was in HR, she got sick of being trashed by her employer. She now has her own rapidly growing specialised HR company and she is busy with a capital B.
There are opportunities out there. Find your passion. Go and talk to people in that industry. There are plenty of ideas around.