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 an

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.