there are no guarantees. I have this fear that i will spend all this time learning and then not be able to trade profitably. you're ridiculous
You're tired and weary before you even started. This is a long, long journey and you're already finding it difficult. Frankly, at your point, you should be filled with enthusiasm and staying up at night reading books and studying charts. If you want guarantees, do something else. Trading is generally a high risk/high reward trade. It's not for feeble minds or people who can't handle adversity. You don't have to risk or lose a lot of money, but you will have to invest a huge amount of time and yes, you're not likely to be successful in the end. The often quoted 10.000 hours is probably a good approximation.
If you never make it at trading but spent all that time learning the lingo and pitfalls you still have the option of becoming a vendor. 99% of vendors failed at trading. Students don't seem to care, as hardly anyone asks for proof of profitablity before handing over cash.
Truth in that. You need to learn what to look for... then have the discipline to watch with diligence to catch the trades on time (easier to mess up than it sounds), and finally the discipline to act where you should... take risks, take losses. What aspiring traders desperately need is quality mentors. But the good traders see no upside in teaching/training noobs. If you judge by the percentage of successful traders, you must conclude the endeavor is "difficult"... not for everybody.