Can I still pursue learning/higher education even when I did not attend school?

I am 16 years old and my dream is to pursue a higher education, or be able to learn understand and know about difficult subjects, this dream of mine is motivated by the fact that, due to financial struggles, i have not been able to attend school or any sort of educational curriculum ever since primary school, which created a lot of insecurity surrounding my education or critical thinking abilities.

i have always thought of myself as pretty dumb or average and ever since i couldn't go to school it made me feel even worst about what im intellectually capable of achieving. i want to be able to do hard things and i want to be able to pursue a higher education and challenge myself, but i believe or i feel that its not possible for me to get to that level with a different learning experience, i dont have any guidance, or a environment that helps point out and correct my personal mistakes, or a environment to discuss subjects with people who have more experience.

………

I plan to take a GED in replacement of a HS diploma since i cant afford school. The subjects i want to learn are Maths, Physics, and philosophy, but right now im learning maths.

and right now my learning consists of learning things from recommended books, and i use mind mapping as a way to organize my learning and understand the relations between the ideas that are explained, what i understand from learning is that we need to see the big picture in a sense that we need to compare and contrast ideas and see what similarities are there and what relationships there are, and we need to track which relationship(s) are the most valuable. What im scared of is that bcoz i don't have a environment that corrects my personal mistakes or a environment to test my knowledge (exams/quizzes) im never gonna know what im doing wrong or my blind spots.

Ive always seen stories about children who were homeschool still succeeding, but i am not homeschooled, i cannot afford tuitions or tutors and am entirely self studying. so please tell me, is it possible for people with a different educational background like mine to succeed in a higher educational setting? or learn subjects that are difficult?

should i maybe learn things for the hell of it first? For fun even??

Submitted June 19, 2026 at 06:00AM by esninjaversionindo https://ift.tt/xdIFLSj