Wow. Your story is basically my story. Smart kid, was a CS major at Tulane when Katrina hit (I'm also a New Orleans native). I went into a huge depression and stopped attending classes. Tulane cut my degree program, so I switched to Philosophy. Started drinking heavily. My grades plummeted. 22 hours from graduating, I found a job doing random tech things (some LAMP stack administration, help desk work, etc.) so I quit school.
My first year on the job I was highly unmotivated and did just the bare minimum of work required, but the second year (thanks in large part to an amazing boss), I really started to get active developing in php. I realized that development was what I really enjoyed doing, and then I became a voracious learner. I read every book I could get my hands on about software development, design patterns, frameworks. A year after that I was doing primarily OOP php work, and now I'm in the process of developing my startup while keeping my day job. (I also lost a bunch of weight and became a workout fanatic - that really helped with the depression and alcoholism thing - trying to lift while drunk is a terrible experience)
I think I will go back and finish up a degree. There's a social stigma that goes along with not having a bachelors. "Oh, he wasn't smart enough for college." But in terms of helping me achieve my life goals? I don't think it's at all necessary, as long as you keep on learning and doing.
This just very quickly jumped to the top of my list of 'favorite web applications.' I'd been using ColourLovers.com, but some of those schemes were simply too ... artistic? for me. Thanks for the link!
My first year on the job I was highly unmotivated and did just the bare minimum of work required, but the second year (thanks in large part to an amazing boss), I really started to get active developing in php. I realized that development was what I really enjoyed doing, and then I became a voracious learner. I read every book I could get my hands on about software development, design patterns, frameworks. A year after that I was doing primarily OOP php work, and now I'm in the process of developing my startup while keeping my day job. (I also lost a bunch of weight and became a workout fanatic - that really helped with the depression and alcoholism thing - trying to lift while drunk is a terrible experience)
I think I will go back and finish up a degree. There's a social stigma that goes along with not having a bachelors. "Oh, he wasn't smart enough for college." But in terms of helping me achieve my life goals? I don't think it's at all necessary, as long as you keep on learning and doing.