Hi i-did-it,
It can be hard to look back on everything and get down on yourself. I think the most important thing that you have to do when moving forward is that you have to forgive yourself. Understand that your mind and decision making ability was high jacked. This is not an excuse, but the truth.
There will be plenty of more opportunities in your life time, in all aspects of your life. My favorite quote of all time is “luck is being prepared when opportunity presents itself”. I relate this to learning as much as we can, and working as hard and smart as possible. I think you have a great opportunity right now with helping people that really need it. To me, that is worth so much more to us than a big paycheck. Don’t get me wrong, money is important, but there are always good paying jobs out there. I try not to stress too much about money because it comes and goes constantly. If you set goals for yourself about where you want to be in a year, 5 years, 10 years, and make a plan, you will achieve them.
I’m an advocate about self education, and I use Udemy a lot to learn anything really (that’s how I became a software developer). I do not have a degree, just an interest in building things. It is cheap to take these courses (only buy them when on sale), and they are taught by industry professionals. If you want to learn anything, they most likely have it.
Or you can just look things up on youtube :). Have a great day
–Nick