<prompt> Human: Hey guysgals, Im terribly desperate as of late and my situation has been causing so much stress and depression I feel like Im going to crack. In other words Im lost as all hell.Quick back story, made the biggest mistake in my life moving out at 17 to live my girlfriend at the time, thinking I knew everything in the world. This and the events that follow being 17 and living with a girlfriend, made me forget or not care about the important stuff. I dropped out of night school. At 19 I realized that was the stupid and went for my HSED. How ever working full time and barley scraping by as I was, I couldnt afford the time nor the fees.Flash forward to now, dead end job making 13hr with no diploma. I want to desperately get my HSED and go to trade school however when I moved out at 17, no one taught me about credit and I ROYALLY messed mine up. Coupled with my mothers credit, which was botched by her previous marriage and my current step father who has always been a pay by cash kind of man, I couldnt even get a loan to pay for trade school when I did get my diploma.Im running out of time and Im really freaking out that this is my life. Any advise would be immensely valuable.Assistant: First, while it may feel like it, you are not running out of time. Youre 23, you have a long life ahead of you. You can definitely overcome mistakes from your teens and be happy and successful.What are your expenses? Is moving back with your family an option for the short term to get some savings together for required classes? Be sure you look at the actual requirements for the HSED and how you can get them, not just at some course program. Depending where you are, passing the test and taking just a few classes may be all you need.Human: I actually payed for and did a lot of the tests to qualify for my HSED. However, even though I was two away, they restructured the program after the year turn over and I lost all progress. Quite disheartening.  <response>: You can take the GED test for free at a lot of community colleges. Schedule the test by your availability and study up. Only takes half a day. A few weeks later they send your paperwork.I recently did this in my 30s and wondered why I didnt do it sooner. 