Regrets?

I pulled the trigger. Dropped out of film school. Spoke to a friend last evening who said filmmaking is that kind of profession where getting a degree is cool, but dropping out of the program is cooler. Wasn't satisfied with what I was learning, but more than anything else, felt exhausted by the labyrinthic policies and the amount of bureaucracy involved in shooting in our student films. Besides, I never really had a good producer, and spent maximum of my time on these projects going through the grueling greenlight process: unnecessary documentation, permitting, demands of the insurance company, et al. The amount of time I had remaining to actually work on my script, visual language and casting, was disappointing, to say the least. We were all in a race to shoot one project after another, which is okay for a fresher, but I didn't feel like we were discussing ideas or spending time finding the form -- or for that matter, even working on making our stories more engaging. Technique and craft is important, but only gets one so far. Filmmaking is a lot of things, but more than anything else, it is effective storytelling. 

Whether or not it has shaped me as a better filmmaker, I am not so sure. Yes, it has made me pay more attention to detail -- but that's my own ambition, and not so much about the school. What is for sure is that it has made my journey more unconventional and colourful. I guess that's what matters, isn't it? Film is about everything but film itself.