After I gave up on my four year University, I moved across the country. I worked miscellaneous jobs that I didn’t care about just to pay the bills. Construction, fast food, and the very rare freelance computer programming job. I spent a year or so doing this, then decided maybe I really did want that degree.
I knew that back at my four year school, I had nearly three years worth of total passing credit. I could have tried to transfer to a local university, but 1. my GPA was so atrocious they probably wouldn’t have let me in, and 2. I would have lost a bunch of those credits I eked out because of residency requirements. I decided to try hitting the local community college to grab some credits, which I would eventually transfer back to my previous university.
I was hopeful that the change of scenery would make me better at school. It did, a little, but not much. I went for two semesters, taking ten classes. I got a couple of As, a couple of Fs, and a bunch of Cs. Pretty bad, but honestly better than I had been doing just a couple of years before.
Another thing I got during this time was a student job doing QA on a software product. This gave me a bit more experience that I could stick on a resume. On a whim I applied for a bunch of jobs several states away, where the market was hot. I got multiple job offers. I stuffed my degree plan in the trash and went to work instead.