I wish I could stay in college forever. I would love to be an eternal student. I would hate to have to enter the workforce. Work is literally modern day slavery. We're all chained and imprisoned; we're prisoners. At least we know that we're in prison. The vast majority of people don't even know. I don't want to be chained to work for the rest of my life. I'd rather die
I feel the exact same as you, I love learning new things and the social atmosphere of educational settings, while absolutely loathing the isolating, monotonous slog of the workforce where you are doing boring and repetitive tasks. I remember working dead end retail jobs as a teenager and younger adult, then being told that a degree was the key to escaping that sort of lifestyle.
What I didn't realize is work is hell regardless, outside of a select few niche fields. It's particularly hard as an autistic person, and I've never had a workplace environment where I had anything remotely in common with anyone. Your circle shrinks significantly when you leave schooling, and a thriving, bustling community is replaced with a narrow window of interactions with a team of colleagues that likely aren't gonna be remotely similar in age, interests, or life experiences.
Losing the benefits of university life alongside my health problems is a huge source of sadness for me too. When I was in full time work as a teenager I was in so much physical pain that all I did was go to work, come home and pass out, rinse and repeat. I had no life. It was a miserable existence. Then when I went on a work placement one summer during my undergraduate degree, I was similarly miserable due to a toxic work environment and no way to socialise.
The fact is that social opportunities do dry up after a certain point in adulthood. If you look at the number of events for students in my area versus the events that are open to the general public, it's laughable. There's a considerable dearth of social opportunities for older adults, while in uni there are always free events going on, clubs/societies, and numerous ways to meet new people. I find life outside of university incredibly isolating.
I assume most people get too busy with work and marriage/kids to socialise as much after a certain point in their life, and have set social circles carried over from adolescence that they aren't interested in expanding . But as a person who will never be having kids or a happy marriage, it's like what now?? There's no reason for me to keep going when the environment that allowed me to thrive is being taken away.