Grew up in the hood. Shitty grades until high school. Went to university, killed it. Transferred to top tier university - 20 years old. Story changes here:

Grew up in the hood. Shitty grades until high school. Went to university, killed it. Transferred to top tier university - 20 years old. Story changes here: Family history of depression; mine starts to surface Academically competitive environment, I got by before just winging it, now everyone was smart AND worked hard Met girl at new university, was completely smitten. She broke up with me and moved away since she was a year older. This accelerated depression. School got mad, took away financial aid, including loans. This coupled with the top was devastating. While I was busy with gf and being shitty at school, never actually made new friends, was terribly lonelly. Exacerbated depression. School kicked me out. Depressed, broke af, heartbroken, no friends, and felt like I was stupid because I couldn't compete at school. --- Got a job as a server at a restaurant, made friends with people my age. Started getting money and feeling better. Got a 2nd job at an analytics company, after my interview turns out I wasn't a complete idiot. Got good experience and more money. Started taking classes, this time with a chip on my shoulder due to being poor and not groomed to be a good student. Killed it. Came back to Uni, killed it. Applied to over 100 jobs, got an offer as a contractor at a tech company for 15/hr, while they charged 50/hr. More chips on my shoulder. 6 months later spoke to director and got FTE status with an 80k salary. *Kept doing my best, 3 years later I'm a PM at a top company making >170k a year. --- Left out lots of highlights but that's more or less my story.