Well, cheer up dude......
I was never really a mechanic until.....hmmmmmm.....I grew up a mechanic...
It it hard for some to understand machanics, and the fine art of wrench turning...but if you did that good at that age...just think what you could be doing later in life......it's called a learning experiance...
granted...I don't know if you have plans on becomeing a doctor, a pilot, or even a mortician...but if you wish to stick to wrench turning...then find out what you did wrong, and go from there.
I grew up literally in a machine shop...I was stripping engines down to the bare parts when I was around 5-7 years old, put my first engine back together by myself around 10 years old, built my own personal engine for my Jeep at 16, swapped it in and had my first monster......then I joined the Air Force...and became a Crew Chief on F-15's when I was 18...did that a few years, and then dropped all machanics for a few years, then once I wanted to...I got back into it, went to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, got MY A&P licence....then got a job swapping more engines and building engines on planes....I did more Aircraft engines and swaps than you can think about....but the best thing is to build an engine, a TSIO-540J2BD engine for a twin engine plane, a piper cheiftain, and watch that turbo engine fly up to it's next engine rebuild which is about 3000 flight hours, and then rebuild it again....been there, done that...and the plane flew daily twice to the Bahamas and all over Florida, with 8-10 people onboard....and that made me proud...but the stress levels are there....it not pretty going home with a few bolts in your pockets, and you cant remember where they came from.
When you educate yourself...your OK, but if you go to an actual trade school, then your opening yourself to a whole new world. I keep trying to tell you guys to get involved with cars, because you can pick up common problems that you can easily fix yourself, and save all kinds of money....instead of taking the car to rip-off joe blow mechanic and having him rape you with no lube. But I will give you a hint...aircraft engines are a lot easier to work on than cars....and they swap in less than a few hours....and you don't have to fab up anything except baffles for aircooling...once in a while.....hell, I still work on Aircraft....and enjoy it every day......but now I just cut carbon fiber, kevlar, boron, and other composite materials for helicopters with a huge CNC machine....and I make more too...hehe
I hate my car, everything breaks here and there, so yeah its getting old real fast. But when I swap around christmas, it can't get worse, it can only get better. 
