At twenty, I had a wife and a five year old daughter. We had been living on our own, in our own apartment for about a year (no longer floating between parent's houses). I was in my second year at university on a near full ride (tuition totally covered, books and living expenses were mine). I had just taken my first programming class and worked nights for a friend's start up making $8/hr (2003) programming in php between 10pm and 2am a few nights a week. I was also the youngest student hired at my university to work in the graphic design department, and worked maybe ten hours a week there. Upon graduation, I would leave tech and not return for ten years. A very hard ten years.