I originally went to college for computer science because I liked programming and I was good at it. Then I got a gig to write some software for a company and swiftly realized that if I had to do that 8 hours a day 5 days a week for the rest of my life I would jump off a bridge. So I dropped out and went back to working in a factory.

Now I’m a process tech at that factory who basically works as the right hand of the engineers. I spend my days keeping my brain busy troubleshooting new and unique issues, fixing equipment, and generally doing whatever it takes to keep production running. It’s the same problem solving fun I got from programming but I get to work with my hands and with more varied mediums. I absolutely love it and I make more doing this than I would if I was a programmer in my area. I make enough money to be fairly happy and I’m in a position that is about as automatable as plumbing (not at all) so my job is secure.

So, with all that said, if I had to make the decision to drop out of college again, I would do it even faster. That’s not to say I’m not grateful for what I learned in college, but it wasn’t worth all the money I spent. Not to mention the drain on my mental health of trying to both work full time and go to school full time which is what I needed to do to afford it.