[Benjinger]

Hi everyone, I am Ben and I live in the UK. I have recently left sixth form and was placed with the choice of university or work.
I chose the latter in the form of an apprenticeship. The wage for an apprenticeship is a lot lower than normal wages, I probably earn less money than some of my friends get for working half as much as I do.
I work about a 2 hour commute away as I cannot drive and have to get a bus to the station a train walk 2 miles and then another bus before I can start work. This joirney would take me 15-20 minutes driving and I have had 6 driving lessons so far.
I am an IT support apprentice and the business I work for is very small. This means that often everyone else around me is busy and they don't have the time to teach me, which is essentially what an apprenticeship is about. This means I spend a lot of my time doing.... nothing. I spend a lot of money and time getting there to do nothing for all my time. When I get given a task I can do I relish it because I feel like I am getting somewhere but in the grand scheme I am not.
I know that this is all a means to an end and that once I finish this apprenticeship I can move on... but to what?
The guy I work with was an apprentice before and he's been stuck at this place for 5 years now since his finished.
We all hate my boss because he is a very hard guy to get along with.
On top of all this most of my friends have moved away for university and I rarely get to see them because if they are back I'm working. I have very little time to spend with the friends that are here because they work weekend jobs.
This is a full time adult job for someone much older than me, I'm 18 and I keep thinking this is not what I should be doing I should be enjoying life while I'm still young and I am really not.
I can't stop thinking about my ex girlfriend who I messed up with and I know I'll never find someone like her again.
I am depressed.
I am unhappy.
I feel like everything I have mentioned and more is amassing upon me and looming over me like a great tidal wave or a thunderous stormy grey cloud.
I take a lot of sick days and make excuses because I know there is no point me going all that way to do nothing but when I take days off I have to 'pretend' to be ill anyway so I can't do anything then either.
I feel like I am now stuck doing this forever and will never be able to enjoy the things my other friends can because they have gone to uni and met new people and are living their own lives.
To some this may not seem like a huge problem but it's weighing me down and I don't know who else to talk to because I don't want to burden my family or friends with these kind of things.

I don't know if there is anything anyone can say to this as ... a solution or just to try and make me see the bright side (I was happy for the second and third months of this job but the first fourth and fifth were tough on me).

Thank you.

- Ben the actually unhappy happy guy