This is my story, I swear it's true, but writing it down it doesn't seem believable.
I had a 4.0 GPA through high school. Honors, AP (Music Theory, History, English, Chemistry), early college Pre-Med, and gifted classes. Highest score on the early college's entry exam in almost 20 years. Got a job at 15 as a vet tech (scooping up messes, but also cleaning up surgeries and sometimes getting to observe and assist, which was awesome), was a dept manager at an Office Depot by 18 (I graduated at 17) with a line on becoming a regional manager through a training program and I was also working nights as a prep and line cook. Kept this up for two years, moved out of my parent's house. At some point, I found out that I was making almost a dollar less hourly at Office Depot than the cashier's starting pay and got angry, which led me to demand a raise which they gave: .05 an hour. Quit, decided to go to school. (Note: in retrospect, this was a stupid move but I was young and didn't weigh the future earnings of a regional against my current pay and the imagined sleight, this was a VERY effective lesson in perspective)
Found out that my family made too much for me to get anything but short term loans (due at the end of the semester/quin) and I was only eligible for Pells or other grants after everyone else got them (my family had no intention of paying for college, that's why I got a job out of high school). Also, this was when Bush cancelled Bright Futures, so I lost out on a grant I would've gotten there. Had to bust my ass working 3 jobs (a record store, a health food store, and a coffee shop) to make money to go to community college one or two classes at a time. Started Pre-Med but realized that I would never be able to pay up-front for that many classes at a time. Moved majors a few times (Psych, Music, A&P) before I settled on English Literature, mostly because I could finish the classes and the knowledge would still be relevant years later when I took the next class. At this point my daughter was born, I raised her as a single father, and I moved on to university.
Graduated with multiple honors and a straight A average at 37 after working at a health food store which parlayed into working for a doctor which parlayed into becoming a medical researcher and writer (book proposals, blogs, social media) so I was once again working 3 jobs. I retired at 40 from those jobs and didn't work for a year. During the years between graduating and retiring, I invested heavily by using the money that was previously paying for school to buy land or stocks and to pay cash for most things. I went crazy being retired so I went for a job in my degree field for the first time at 41 years of age.
I'm now a senior copy editor for the DOE.