You haven’t lost yourself but you’ve just been so busy building your future that you forgot to make space for the person you’re building it for.
You don’t need to abandon your dreams; start giving a little time back to your art, your words, and yourself. You deserve a life that feels as meaningful as it looks successful.
You are smart enough to know all this. I am not telling you anything new that you dont know. But it has few different perspective too. Think yourself lucky to be at the stage where you are , able to join college of your choice , join course of your choice and doing hard study is also your own choice. I came across one article where one poor girl singing outside temple and whoever stops to listen her, she says , I want to go to school. She was so poor , her family cant afford to admit her in school . Their priority was their food .
One more example I would like to share with you. During my meditation class , few years back , we have to sit in Vajrasan that cause heavy pain in leg joints. We were told that enjoy the pain.
Just live in presence thats what matters and think yourself lucky , you are taking breath ( somewhere someone taking his/her last breath) , thank God for whatever your current situation is because you have all rights and power to change it if you really want to. No one can stop you.