My dream was to go to college in the US. It was my first and only major dream. Nothing had obsessed me to that extent prior to or since.
All I did everyday was daydream about dorm life, frat parties, chilling out with my future buddies in one of those beautiful campuses, attending one of those huge classes, spending time with professors learning new stuff, playing sports... Basically, "work hard, party hard" for four years after high school.
When recession hit I still had about 3 years of high school left. But my dad's business was affected badly. He and a few partners had started a software company two years prior to that and all his clients were based in the US. Naturally business suffered. All but one of his partners left. It was my dad's dream to run his own business. The two of them stuck around, not losing hope. This meant working without any income for a while which turned out to be just over 1 year.
Despite knowing all this, I was initially unfazed. I started looking for options to afford college. A student loan was out of the question because we didn't have any collateral. We were still living on rent. Then I tried making money online. Nothing really materialised and by the end of high school I had decided to take time off to figure things out. The end goal was the same and I needed some time to find a way to reach the goal. But my family was against it. To them these were "crucial years and my job was to get a college degree, a job and then go abroad for higher studies because that's what everyone does!"
That I didn't manage to make any money by then didn't help things either. From their perspective, I was a high school pass out with the unrealistic dream of making enough money in a year or so to afford college in the US (which is understandable).
I didn't really have any other choice by now. I still remember that dreadful feeling as I walked through the gates of my college in the city, one I never thought I'd end up in, to fill out my application. Certainly not how I pictured it. It's been five years now and I have a semester left. I nearly quit half way, flunked a year, had a hard time moving on and I don't know what fuck I'm supposed to do once it's over. But it is what it is. I guess that was my dose of reality. No wonder they say it's a roller coaster ride.