If it helps you at all, I believe in learning on the job.

I didn’t know much about money or finance so I got a job as a teller, moved up until I felt I knew what I was doing.

In a similar vein as you, I knew nothing of tools and working with your hands, so I became a mechanic, then a maintenance worker.

And now I’m looking for an IT job. I never went to college but since highschool I’ve never stopped learning. And BTW I sucked at both fields when I started, but 2 years in you’ll figure it out. 5 years in you might be ready for your dream career, or moving on like me.

To answer the question though I’d love to go to Mars! I think I’d be the kind of person who’d be good at being among the first. But I don’t think I’d be able to permanently say goodbye to the creature comforts of Earth. Especially pets.

Gas station attendant - Did this for a while and loved it. I was left to my own devices, no one to hassle me about how I did the job, and I got to meet strange and interesting folk. I was once referred to a “gas station guru” by a regular because I’d listen to their woes and give timely if unexpected advice for dealing with an absurd range of things. ADHD and self sufficiency make you pretty good at a lot of small tasks.

Bowling alley attendent - that’s just gas station attendant but in an inherently fun and strange environment.

Card shop owner - probably the only place where you’re going to look more appropriate gaming on the clock than not, but actually I like the idea of offering a safe space for people with similar hobbies to me.

Appliance repair and modifications - make a living jailbreaking peoples refrigerators and fixing washing machines? Literally heaven.

Alas, none of these really pay enough to live on or actually exist in the later most case.

Pretty much the same as you. I love designing and creating things; both on an individual and larger scale, managing stuff as well, but i am also neurodivergent and was not really able to complete a degree at the university. At this point in my life (mid thirties) it is sadly very unlikely for me to ever get into an occupation or role where i could actually do something in that vein.

I would have loved to be a programmer circa 2005-2020 but I got fucked by a rare disease that prevented any career aspirations

Being a good looking movie star would not be wrong. :)

Tom Cruise is living the life I want.

I simply do not dream of labor.

closest i would get to dream labor is labor on a homestead, taking care of animals and such

I wanted to do too many things, and still do, so I can’t answer this succinctly but…

OP, in your case, it’s never too late to get into what you want to do. Obviously it gets harder the more locked in your life becomes but you’d be surprised at what becomes available once you start.

Case in point, I was an automotive mechanic for a number of years. I didn’t start that career until I was already in my very late 30s. It was something I found interesting and always wanted to try so I gave it a shot. I had no prior trade work (I was a chef/cook prior to that) and my only experience was keeping my old junker running.

It put me on a great path that changed my life substantially for the better. Later I transitioned into something higher paying and easier.

I have an engineer’s heart but not an engineer’s brain. I can fix just about anything and I love thinking about how things work. I work best when I’m solving problems.

But I HATE math. My brain immediately checks out, and it was the only subject I struggled with in school. Academically, I’ve always just clicked more with history and language. I just knew I could never be an engineer because of the amount of math and physics required for an engineering degree. I ended up going for a teaching degree and now I work in museum education.

When I was kid I absolutely fell in love with the game Endless Ocean for the wii. I really wanted to be a marine biologist or just do something where my job would be to spend tons of time out in the sea and diving.

I still wish I could. I live by the ocean and absolutely love fish and the sea. Getting on a boat and going out until land is super distant or out of sight is an absolutely magical experience. You really feel how big the world is. Maybe one day I can have the fund for scuba gear and do some underwater photography out there, but I doubt it.

Space station architect

I’d love to be a philosopher, but the only job you can really get is teaching philosophy. Which is more of a teacher job and not really a philosophy job ironically enough.

I work in a metal fabrication shop so I’m usually tired when I get home most days so it would be hard to try and start a YouTube channel or something, and I’m not charismatic enough to just talk openly to a camera and have people watch.

I still read up on old thinkers, i just don’t get money for it. Kierkegaard is an older one i like. Idk if Alan Watts is considered one but he’s my favorite modern “thinker”, he gave me the most beautiful idea I’ve ever encountered so he’ll always be in my top 3.

Occultism/Natural Law/Hermeticism also have some interesting ideas.

Have to wade thru a lot of shit tho, especially in older books. My favorite was someone legitimately believing if you boiled piss for 5 years it would turn into the philosophers stone lolol. And if the temperature changes even 1° at any point in the 5 years you have to start over. And that’s why philosopher stones don’t exist anymore. I think the alchemists would say he had the “gold fever” as alchemy was more about turning a person as worthless as lead, into someone as valuable as gold. And there’s a clue to finding the actual “philosophers stone” in its name.

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My intention was to teach at the collegiac level while running a lab looking into longevity genes. Ultimately I could not handle being a student for another six years and a post doc for another six after that before I could spend another 10 years establishing a lab to finally make it which at that point I would be teaching and managing a lab and be directing research rather than doing it. That one year in a PhD program was an eye opener. The academic tracks are just getting to long.

“I am terrible with just knowing things.” Has anyone tried to help you with this? School or a friend maybe? And do you think it’s a problem with memory or that you just can’t grasp the concept? Sometimes it takes a teacher that you just click with or says just the right things in the right way. Or it takes persistence. Just don’t give up. I guarantee one day something will hit you and you’ll go "oh, I get it "

I want to be a landscape architect with a heavy emphasis on sustainability. I dream of turning dead parking lots into water catchment basins to support native perennials and trees. ala Brad Lancaster

but I can’t afford to go back to school, nor is there even a program like that in my area.