So my advice is "don't do what I did."

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I didn't live at home for large swaths of High School. I lived at a buddy's house, slept in cars from time to time. My sister was stealing my shit and selling it to friends and my parents and I didn't get along. More than that we could get into (or not). I'd pulled a machete on my dad at one point. I didn't talk to my sister for a year and a half. And because my parents had fucked up the taxes and such pretty hard, there was no chance I'd see any money for college and no scholarships either.

I was recruited early on by several liberal arts colleges. I was damn good at the English thing. And to a man I told them

"I'm getting a mechanical engineering degree because if there's one thing I won't be after college, it's dependent on my parents for money.

It wasn't out of the blue. I took apart my first car when I was six. By the time I'd graduated high school I'd rebuilt a dozen engines. I drove to college in a car I designed, down to the steering and brake systems. But that isn't engineering. That's seat-of-the-pants wrenching. And it took four years and countless story problems to learn that I really hate engineering.

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On the plus side:

Mechanical engineering includes fluid mechanics, which is the regime that includes acoustics. I also like music and paid for college mixing bands in clubs. I leaned towards acoustics which, long story omitted, had me as the youngest acoustical consultant west of the Mississippi.

But that ended a while ago. Most of the people who do my current job have no college education whatsoever and they make just as much money as I do. I guess I got here quicker than them but I also spent ten years doing something else.

In the end, I got a degree that would pay my bills that I thought I'd be good at. I was half right. Coulda shoulda woulda - had I done the liberal arts thing, I might be starving right now. Or, I might have written my first novel 20 years ago rather than four months ago.

And to be clear - college was a whole 'nuther animal back then. If I were graduating in 2014? I'd rethink everything.