what's the worst case scenario after getting a 'useless' degree?

I'm about to start my first week of college and feel simultaneously rushed and behind. I wanted to be done with standardized schooling and learn in a place where I could focus on developing industry skills and researching different fields, but I realized even with the Internet this environment doesn't entirely exist, and I had just been job hopping to help out at home during my gap year. I had wanted to go to community college but my family insisted on not being a 'transfer' student so I have to re-do a few credits, and personally even though immaturity is everywhere, dealing with the small scoffs from my peers about how behind I am, who have been getting tutoring, summer classes and AP classes paid for while I just wanted to graduate high school feels a bit demeaning when I already don't entirely know what I'm working towards. What am I going through these adversities for?

The hardest part is working towards vague goalposts. "A lucrative degree, a good job." I don't know what that looks like. Even when I try to lean into my interests I have to recognize I'm just a child who has had very little experiences.

Personally my goal has been to work in animation, but I both couldn't risk/afford an art school, and was afraid of the flexibility I had if I realized I did not want to work in the animation industry once I actually got there. How would I afford going for a second bachelor's degree or a master's? How would i find something else after a dream dies?

I thought I would lean into the hypothetical, what happens after getting a "useless" degree, after figuring out the industry wasn't what you thought it was after being funneled into academia and out into reality of the industry? How do you manage to educate yourself further if needed while working, and how do you avoid falling into the same trap of pursuing a field you don't truly understand?