Game designer/programmer/owner of an indie game company here! If I have one advice for you: start working on personal project in your free time. Don't wait to have clients for freelance to gain experience and build your portfolio, this is a HUGE trap. I don't mean having clients is bad (it's pretty awesome) but you need to work on personal project all the time.
It helps you build the portfolio and it also help finding the first client (not only do they see what you can do exactly, but they will also be impressed by your discipline. Because working on personal project in your free time is impressive).
You mention being used to procrastinate. I had the same problem! The key is to slowly build up momentum (at least that worked for me). I started with "I wanna build a game in one month, working exactly one hour every single day. No excuse, no more and no less". As I got used to this, I built it up: 2 hours a day, 3 hours a day, etc. I am currently at 4 hours a day. Keep in mind that this is my day job as well, for personal project you can adapt according to your schedule with school etc. The important part is to pick a duration and stick with it EVERY SINGLE DAY (I really can't stress this enough). You'd be amazed by how much you can accomplish by just one strong focused hour every single day. It's important to build the habit to work, regardless of circumstances. It's ultimately what it means to be disciplined.
For your first projects, the quality or the content doesn't even matter. Find something random. You just have to go out there and build something. You need to build the habit first. When you get more experience and your habit is stable, you can start working on more inspiring things.
To answer your post directly: don't base your life on other people. Base your life on what YOU want and what YOU can do. There is always a way around difficult situations (like long distance relationships). Also if you manage to stay together for one year long distance, you have a true and strong relationship that has been proven. Getting disciplined is also a really good idea regardless of your circumstances. The resources on this sub are excellent and I recommend reading and implementing them whenever you can.
Good luck with everything! This won't always be easy, there will be a lot of obstacles and traps in your path, but you can do it for sure.