I quit my job last March and it was a bad idea.

However, I don't see what kind of net you put in place for when you quit. You don't appear to have lined up another job. You mentioned freelancing but you don't specify how much time you spent trying to kick start that before leaving your paid job.

At the end of the day, if you jump ship you need some sort of raft to stay afloat. Going from paid work to nothing is really hard as you loose your salary then have to spend an unknown amount of time trying to get something going. It is far better to get something at least moving before quitting a job and putting time in it.

I haven't read what the rest of the responses say here but I say stop being a pansie. Get your life together. Decide if you want to go into employment or continue self employed. Dedicate 60 hours a week to making whatever you decide work.

You are where you are, stop dwelling on it. Decide what you want to do next.. make it happen.

Or stay at home, disappoint your parents, have difficulty finding a lady friend and become a bum. Its up to you.

When I was your age, I was 23 stone, had never kissed a girl, was working as office monkey and was depressed. I was in your position (including thoughts about ending it). I was scared of Math. I spoke only one language. My confidence was shattered through 9 years of being bullied.

Now I'm 31. I'm 10 stone lighter. I'm married to the girl I met when I was 21. I've leant to love Math. In addition to English, I speak fluent Dutch. Heck, I live in a different country (UK to Netherlands). In a couple of weeks I'll be starting at a new, better job. That's going from a previous good job :)

Freelancing at your age is a joke. You'll just be taken advantage of. You don't have the experience to be able to demand a decent rate. You'll be better off investing in your education than working for crap freelancer rates.

Focus on education, education, education. It looks like you're interested in UI/UX. Focus your education to improving it. Miss some Math? Grab the Dummies books. Read them. Follow the MIT lectures. Then put the knowledge to use in a personal project. Write a flash Thrust clone. Or Mario clone. Write a charting library.

Don't try and go straight into IT. You don't have the experience. Get that experience via the side routes. Start as office monkey. Then help colleagues with Excel. Build them a database. Grow.

Don't get hung up on formal education. In IT it's not that important. The field moves much faster than other professions - continuous learning is more important than having done a specific degree.

Take my example. I know more, and am better at my craft than my university-educated coworkers. Why? Because I've worked harder than them. I've been coding for a similar amount of time, despite being 15 years younger (started at 11). I read like crazy. I've taught myself a lot (with a bit of help from MIT's open access scheme). I'm a perfectionist, and that drives me to improve. Constantly. And ultimately I love my field. I love learning.

My highly educated coworkers are lazy. They use their degrees as an excuse not to invest in their skills. Sure, they spent three years studying computer science in the 80s. But a lot has changed since then. They know little to nothing about software engineering. They never think about how to improve themselves. They hide behind a Phd or MSc.

If you need to talk to someone with similar experiences who can give you tips, then drop me a line.

Let me know hmb143 at gmail

If you want to team up then let me know we can chat to see if wavelengths match. Then we can work on an idea.