I can relate to so many of you or have had similar experiences, and like Ender says it gets better as long as you keep moving forward.
I'm 2 months shy of Thirty and was medically discharged from the Navy about 5 years ago. I had a severe skin condition they couldn't treat so they released me with 30% disability. It wasn't even enough to cover the rent. I moved my family back to Florida and we went from doing okay to poor. In the Navy I was a Data Systems Technician with a solid understanding of electronic theory, but few jobs were available. I got a crappy job at a 7-11 temporarily until I got my GI Bill situation straight.
Every night I went to work it was sad for me because I tried so hard and felt as if I failed. At times I sat in my bathroom crying because I didn't know how I was going to feed my family and the stress of it was causing a wedge in my marriage.
Some months later My wife found work and I started school. My GI bill and Pell grant money allowed me to quit my crappy job and we were doing okay once more. When things seemed to be looking up I had got a the flu and tried to shake it off for two weeks with no sign of relief. I walked into my doctors appointment with a 3.5 hemoglobin count. A normal hemoglobin count is 14, anything below 8 they recommend hospitilization. By all rights, I should've been dead, and there were times I had wished I was.
I would soon find out it was cancer. Again I cried. My dad went back for my mom, my wife was at work and I laid there thinking. . . I cleared my mind and something inside me snapped. I made up my mind not to quit and that got me through the long road ahead.
I spent three months in the hospital for radiation therapy and sent the cancer into remission. It was during my time of recooperation I rediscovered Joe-collecting and Comic Books. I had to occupy my mind and time because I spent 6 months recooping at home until I was mediccally cleared to go back to school.
I first went to a technical school and am now at the community college. I bought a brand new home over a year ago and all 3 of my kids are honor roll students. My wife is also in school and everyday we strive for better.
The lesson is: a sanctioned boxing fight ends in 12 rounds, a street fight doesn't end until someone doesn't get up. Life is a street fight, it knocked me down twice, but I got up.
