this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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I dropped out of high school at 17 and went to college (which I think is the same as a community college in the US? Not a full four-year degree) when I was 24 for programming. Worked as a programmer for a couple years and then got bored and went into agriculture for a couple years. Now I'm bored again and looking at going back to school for something else. I'm 33 and I'm doing fine. 21 is so young! You have lots of time to figure yourself out. Honestly I think asking 18-year-olds to decide what they want to do forever is ridiculous. Almost nobody knows themselves that well that young. I'm still figuring out what I want in life.
It's so cool that you are switching careers like that. Do you have kids? Do you have to save up money to live off of during the bits where you go back to school again?
Two kids. I live in Canada and have a disability so I don't have to pay for school, which I know is a big advantage. I paid for my first diploma myself, though, without any loans or grants. I worked through high school and of course after and saved the money. I also got married (and had no wedding) and we used the gift money to pay for school. Had our first kid while living with my grandmother and paying her mortgage for her. I was 30 when I finally moved out into my own place. Before that we lived with my grandmother, before that my inlaws, and before that with my dad.
I took the long road but I have a house now and that mortgage is my only debt.