When I was a freshman at the university I pledged a sorority, and lived in their off-campus group home.
For a girl from the farms of the midwest, this was all a bit of a culture shock for me, because there were parties almost every night.
I made a lot of great friends in the sorority, but I found that living there made it very difficult to study, and my grades were terrible. As a pledge, I had to do a lot of menial jobs around the sorority house, everything from cleaning the bathrooms to changing out the air filters in the different A/C units around the building. One time the head of the sorority had her air conditioner quit on her, and she asked me to figure it out for her. I started researching HVAC repairs online, and discovered a few very interesting things. First of all, I learned how much certified HVAC techs can make, even when they are first starting out. Secondly, I learned that the HVAC industry was in desperate need of workers, and were actively seeking more females. HVAC techs are almost always men, and there was a growing call for diversity in the workforce. I realized that if I could get HVAC certified, it would be very easy for me to find a job that paid me good money. Why was I wasting time taking classes about romantic literature when I could be working towards an HVAC certification and starting a real career? My freshman year of college was also my final year of college!