[hncomment]

There are lots of opportunities for career second chances in the US – probably more so than most other regions, according to the preponderance of reports I've seen from people with experiences in multiple cultures/countries.

If you perceive otherwise, then it is very possible that you are encountering one or both of the following:

1. A highly-local expectation, in your particular community/family/friend-groups. You may need to move.

2. A hyper-local expectation, in your own mind. It might be justified by the particular path through experiences you've had, but now become self-reinforcing & self-defeating. To see counterexamples, against human tendencies for confirmation-bias and negativity, you may have to deeply consider that you might be wrong, and that your sampling of the possibility space has been unrepresentative.