I know this is a little late probably but maybe this will still be useful to you.
Its hard to take money and time to go to college when it feels like all you are doing is everything that you can to make ends meet. The last thing you want to do is put yourself in the hole with a bunch of student loans with no guarantee of immediate returns towards pulling yourself up out of that hole.
First thing I would do is some soul searching about what it is that I really would enjoy getting bed out of to go do every day. Sometimes it isn't always practical to jump into our dream right away. For e.g., starting a restaurant. Restaurants typically require a lot of startup costs and have a high rate of failure. I wouldn't start one without being able to "be ok" financially if I lost everything on it. Sure you could get other investors to minimize your risk, but you also minimize your potential gains.
Sometimes what people, myself included, end up doing is a job, while not their ideal first choice, or dream job, can be used as a conduit to make your dreams come true. I had some issues getting a career related to my formal education because of some nonviolent marijuana felonies. I'd kill interviews and pass skill assessment tests to work in engineering departments, with my AAS: Electronics and Telecommunications for big companies like Boeing, Micron, Lockheed Martin, Rockwell Collins... they were prepared to offer me big starting salaries based upon my test scores, some of which were the best scores they ever received... I wrote those tests as a 1st year electronics student. They'd be like when can you start? They'd then say HR is going to go over everything once more and we'd like to offer you a job in our engineering department.... then they'd be like "Oh yah, so whats this felony business?" No matter how well I tested or how qualified I was for the positions I applied for, many of these corporations, or the defense contractors they worked for, did not have the flexibility to offer a position to someone with my criminal background.
Frustrated discouraged, I decided to apply to the local IBEW 714 (Electrical worker's union) for an apprenticeship. Something I never would have thought I'd be doing. I went through the apprenticeship program and learned a great deal. Even prior to getting my journeyman's electrician license I was offered a job in the office managing projects. I've generated a great deal of work for the guys in the field and due to careful management am averaging a 20% profit margin on all the projects we acquired by my estimating the cost and getting awarded of such projects. Pretty unheard of to generate both that amount of work and profit margin in the first couple of years of doing it. I am now being groomed to buy one of the three owner's shares when they retire this year.
I do enjoy my career quite a lot more than I would have thought I would and have been having better results than I ever thought I would... I do know my real passion is and always will be being a restaurant, gentleman's club, and nightclub mogul. I'm far from having the money needed to take off any of these ventures with success but I do use my spare time to plan out all of the details so I'm ready when I do... I guess the moral of the story is to keep an open mind, you may find great success doing something you thought you would never be doing. If the environment where you work at is a culture of people taking credit for other's work and never rewarding you for going above and beyond, you best look elsewhere for a corporate ladder that's easier to navigate. Smaller outfits tend to be a lot better than large corporations in my personal, but limited experiences in work-life so far.
Also do try to find somewhere that offers tuition assistance. A culture that cultivates employees' self improvement is also one that probably tends to be more forward thinking about their employees' personal growth. Inquiring about whether something like this is available during an interview lets an employer know that you are success bound and are looking for a fulfilling career rather than "just a job."
I just had an apprentice electrician resign today because this trade isn't for him... I do admire the guts that it takes to admit it rather than fake his way though it for another 4 years after we've made a heavy investment in training him. It just goes to show that some people find great success in trying something they didn't necessarily envision their selves doing someday and some do not. If you aren't happy doing what you are doing, step outside of your comfort zone and try something totally different. How can you find your niche in life if you're too scared to try? I tell buddies who have a hard time talking to women the same thing
. Scared love or money doesn't make any.
