Starting education over from scratch

Hello,
In 1999 I received my Associates degree in Computer Animation. After graduation I soon realized that what I had learned was not the industry standard. I did my best trying to get into visual effects the best way I knew how. I even managed to do clean up work on an Independent Sci-Fi film.
The work soon became difficult to find so I started set dressing and other misc. set jobs. Eventually I decided that getting a day job was in my best interest in order to pay rent and bills. Now 6 years have passed and I’m regretting my decision. I’m hoping its not too late to return to the field that I so desire to be a part of but I feel like I’m starting over from scratch and that there are people much younger than I am who are much further along. Now I'm just confused and scared that I waited to long.