u/mags-ammo

Hi everyone, I'm from London, England and I am currently a suspended University student until September 2026.

The course I'm studying is a Mechanical Engineering course.

I’m a mature student, but unfortunately last year, in September 2025 I made some immature choices. Due to being a severe Alcoholic and suffering from depression, I spent the first month of my studies in 2025 drinking copious amounts of Alcohol in my room instead of putting effort into my studies. I was advised by my College Advisors to take a year off to fix my Alcoholism because I was missing far too many classes and my attendance was extremely low.

Fast forward to now, I’m a month sober thanks to AA and I’m looking towards some real healing in my life for the first time. My mental health has been better, and my outlook on life generally is more positive. Only there are now a few problems.

That “year off” was a suspension, and I’ll admit these past few months have been difficult for me because I’ve been applying for as many jobs as possible but have been getting nothing back from companies at all. Now, the job search wouldn’t be as difficult if I was on Universal Credit in the meantime, but according to the law, I’m still a student despite being suspended so my claims have all been rejected despite me disputing these claims. This suspension is meant to last until September 2026.

Not to mention, the bills have been creeping up and without going into too much detail, I’ve been threatened with eviction. Now, it’s not short notice, but if I don’t contribute my share in the next few months the council is going to start making a move. I’ve also got bills that have been overdue and I’ve been borrowing from family members but can’t realistically keep this up for too long.

I’m thinking if I should withdraw from my course so I can claim benefits so I can keep up with the bills. If I do this, I think that’ll make the job search a little easier. The only downside is that I withdraw from my Engineering course entirely. Thoughts? I’m personally leaning towards withdrawing but I thought I’d ask real humans with empathy instead of CGPT about this…

So, I've spent my life growing up in South London, and I'll admit that I have spent the majority of my life adopting Black American culture.

I will admit that I am one of those Black Brits that doesn't necessarily say "yall" or whatever, but I am definitely more influenced by Black American culture than Black British culture. I'm looking to remove that influence from me and to just simply be well-versed in authentic Black British Culture.

Is this even possible? What does a Black British person with absolutely zero American influence even look like? I wanna be like them. I'm 27M if that helps.