Mixed bag from me.
I spent my youth from the age of 11 renovating houses with my dad. Fitting doors, kitchens etc. I found it boring, but my dad would pay me £10 a day, so I spent most weekends and school holidays doing this.
I left school early feeling education, let alone academia was not for me. Dyslexia and memory issues were seemingly too large a hurdle to overcome. My family actively discouraged education anyway as they are members of a 'cult' or cult like group. This did not help. It did not help at all.
Having a family that renovate houses was a big influence, so from there I went into electrical engineering, but to progress, it required more education....ugh. 2 years of college on a apprentiship. I hated the job as I was treated poorly generally (mostly my fault, as I was rediculously passive due to my upbringing, and working with what I later found was a building full of ex cons) and as for education, I liked it even less than before. I had lost all confidence in myself.
So, I became an estate agent. No idea why.
As part of that work, I had a car crash that ended with a serious court case that was unusual to say the least. An old chap with terminal cancer decided to drive his car from the hospital while on oxygen..IN THE CAR, and passed out at the wheel, driving into me.
The police decided it was my fault by default without listening or investigating, (young driver in a sports car
)
The old man died subsequently.
My insurance company (a small niche company) decided that my insurance was void, as they could not find the evidence that I had transferred my insurance to them from a previous company.
Under the threat of vehicular manslaughter at 18.
Over a year later, I won the court case, with the judge even going as far as to say I should sue for damages by the police for negligence. I didn't. I just wanted out of there ASAP.
The insurance company 'found' my insurance documents..just after the court case.
I was broken.
The saving grace was my girlfriend at the time was weirdly interested in getting involved in any way she could. No idea what she saw in me....apart from a challenge!
She went out and worked out all the distances for the incident, angles for vehicles, speed traveling etc, everything! Even the legal stuff, she knew more than the solicitors did, and corrected them several times.
After all this finally finished, I was a nervous wreck but still, I needed a job. A quiet, secluded, simple job, where I could disappear into the background, and just 'servive'. I had developed various nervous issues and was generally a bit 'hyper-aware' of danger.
I married the girl (at 19!) And am still happily married to this day 15 years later.
At the time, she was at uni gaining a degree in English, and worked part time in a school. The school she worked for was looking for a technology technician. It was perfect, and the start of things going right for once.
9 years later, I had a degree in engineering that I gained in my evenings and weekends online. (Learning to read, write and spell to a reasonable level at the same time as completing degree level work was a bit of a baptism of fire in year 1)
Parallel with Uni, I started running... A lot. I listened to music while doing it. This helped keep me calm and focused, but also was great for loosing some weight I had gained through some poor habits for managing stress. A year after finishing uni, I was running 10 miles a day in preparation for a 30 mile run over a mountain range. People thought I was gifted. Truth be told, I was fueled by pure rage while training.
Once I ran the marathon, I didn't feel I needed to run anymore (a bit forest gump no?
). I felt better.
By year 4 of uni, I was 'good enough' and completed my course top in my year.
I then became a teacher.
We bought a deralict house and I now either spend my spare time working on it, or trying to give my 4 year old daughter the life I never had. She loves building with dad, so the HiFi room under construction as we speak!
I now run the engineering department for a specialist engineering school as well as writing qualifications and setting up/designing new schools and uni's.
My favourite thing to do now is watch the various trades ppl try and pull a fast one on the school with overcharging etc, and calling them on it. The confused look on their faces when the teacher in the sharp suit tells them 'you don't need a new RCD for that' or 'there's no need for an isolator there.', or 'I spec'd EPDM' - that's not EPDM'. Little did they know the humble beginnings. Priceless!