Rutgers, that's the neighborhood I live in. All of my friends/former friends go to Rutgers and I'm stuck at community college taking classes over again. Maybe it's a young adult thing, but I feel completely empty and soulless. My first year in college I completely overindulged myself with stuff. I spent all the money I had, got drunk and made a fool of myself, and spent too much time on women that didn't care about me but said they did. Now I feel very bored with life and that the world is in the fast lane while I'm standing still. Were you ever in a situation like me, where you completely wasted a year of college?
I know many people like you who screwed up their first year at Rutgers and eventually made up for it. I also know several transfer students from the nearby community colleges (i.e. Brookdale Community College) who transferred into Rutgers and Rowan University and ended up getting jobs as teachers, physicians, and other advanced job sets. My next door neighbor transferred from community and my roommate two years ago was from community college (graduated with a 3.6 and a $50,000 job).
I'm being completely honest. If there was any year you had to screw up, the best year would be your freshman year. From here on out, you can improve and show that you learned from your mistakes. Honestly, a lot of students make mistakes their first year of college. You've experienced it sooner than later and it gave you something that a lot of other people don't have,
fear and despair.
You know what it feels like to fail. You know what it feels like to feel incompetent. You know what it feels like to feel despair. But you are not incompetent, not a failure, and not supposed to be depressed. PolarBear. I don't care if you screwed up, because we all make mistakes sooner or later. You shouldn't care what other people have to think because when it gets down to it, you are honest and know yourself better than anyone else in the world. Only you can determine how much meaning the life you live, actually has. There are kids with 4.0s and they think their education is a waste because they majored in psychology and can't find a job that matches the education they received from college. You give yourself meaning.
You know what you're capable of, what you want, and how hard you can work in order to get what you want. If you don't, then you should find out who you truly are underneath all the social facade and obligations tying you down. Because when you seriously find out who you are underneath all the assumptions and crap people cover you with, then you know what you want to do, have to do, and love to do to the extent that you'll pull all-nighters and refuse a Friday night out of town.
You can't let an institution get you depressed, you paid them for Christ's sakes. It was a bad match man. That's it. Hey. I screwed up big time a year ago. I was working two jobs as a server operator and at a computer lab. I missed a shift and I was fired. I had been working their for a little over a year and worked hard to earn those promotions. I gave my all to that job... thirty hour work weeks in addition to taking six classes a semester. Family complications arose. My grandfather died and my dad lost his job. My mom arrested my dad. It was too much and I failed a class. In the end I felt so hopeless and incompetent.
I don't know if I have any of the answers you're looking for or that you're trying to find. All that I do know is that we write the ending to the whole story. The difference between a tragedy and a heroic story is the ending. In a tragedy it ends horribly. In a heroic story it ends with the protaganist winning at the end. I have a job at the hospital and I'm going to graduate on time. I had to retake the course I failed and I got an A. My grandfather had a nice funeral and I had my mom and dad make-up. My dad has set up his own business instead of working corporate and is happy that he gets to set his own standards.
You're still young and have time to turn things around. It's up to you though to make yourself happy and to give everyone else who looks down on you the middle finger. I hope this made you feel better. :<
*If I made a bad assumption about you or didn't help you, then please tell me. I just thought it might help if I tried to relate my story to yours.