My father developed a gambling addiction and drained my college fund without telling me. If my parents had told me right away I would’ve had time to take a leave of absence and work full-time or apply for additional financial aid. Instead the school kicked me out for unpaid tuition and won’t let me come back to receive my degree.

I completed all the coursework for a BA in CS. I just couldn’t pay for it, so no degree for me.

I eventually graduated.

The short version - my mental health was fucked up, including a very intense anxiety I had about school.

Only leaving school, lucking into a job with good healthcare, earning enough to be independent for the first time ever, seeing a therapist AND taking medications, made me stable enough to finish.

It was partly because my parents forced me into a scholarship that was tied to teaching afterwards - I was entirely unsuited to being a teacher, but neither of them even attended high school, and to them being a teacher was the pinnacle of achievement. I was pretty good academically but university overwhelmed me, so between that and no incentive to succeed, I failed miserably, only passing a few courses. I ended up getting a professional qualification (not a degree) in my 30s and had a decent career.

Living in a squat for a few years showed me I would have made a fantastic electrian or plumber, but you had to have a penis for that for some reason.

I didn’t graduate from university.

In order to get some more money, I decided to take a TA-position at the school.

For context, I live in Sweden - university costs nothing to attend here, and you get access to a mix of governmental assistance and near-zero interest loans (at about 1/3 assistance 2/3 loans) to finance your living costs while attending university. To get this money you are required to get passing grades in a certain percentage of the courses you take, around 75% is required). If you do not meet these requirements, you lose your benefits, and quickly risk not being able to afford food and rent.

This TA-position however took up more time than I thought it would, and as such, I didn’t manage to pass the courses I was taking. Since I no longer met the passing grades requirement, I could no longer get student loans and assistance, meaning that I had to keep working TA gigs to stay afloat. This finally became untenable, and I decided to drop out and move to another city and look for work.

So far, it’s worked out extremely well. I’ve been ridiculously lucky.