I currently live in a small town in Northern California where there's not much room for opportunity... So far my plan is to get a minimum-wage job and save up until I can afford to move to Sacramento, where I have a couple friends I can live with and obviously better job opportunities. I plan on going to college and getting a degree in CS afterwards, and then try to make my way into the tech industry.
Is this a bad idea? ... What should I do if so?
Next summer, I figured if I only mowed one lawn a day, I'd make the same $$$. Ended up mowing 10+ lawns a week at $25-40 a piece ( I averaged ~$20 - $25/hr depending on the week ). My favorite move was to go to my customer's neighbors and say "Hi! I'm cutting Sam's lawn for $x. If you let me cut your lawn for $x - $5, I'll knock $5 off Sam's lawn as well. Get your lawn cut and save your neighbor some cash." That worked pretty well and kept my transit time down.
Even if you take a min wage job for stability, try contracting yourself out a bit on the side and bank that cash. You'll get where you're going quicker.
I grew up in a small desert town with not much room to grow. The opportunities there were limited for what I wanted to do, and I knew that if I was still living in that town when I was 40, or even 30, I wouldn't be happy.
Being the procrastinator that I am, I knew that I had to take action immediately, or I would inevitably fall into a lull of complacence: a mediocre job, a girlfriend, a dog? And then I would be stuck; eternally glued to this town that I hated by second-rate obligations. (Not entirely true, people make drastic changes even with other obligations all the time, but it's not common.)
I was (and still am) young, and I believe that you should take as many calculated risks as possible when you're young. Do it before you have a mortgage, a spouse, a kid. It's so much easier then, because failing doesn't mean letting your child go hungry, or losing your home and living on the streets. Worst case, you have to move back in with your parents (assuming they're supportive).
When I'm laying on my deathbed and analyzing my life, I would rather regret trying and failing to achieve my dreams than regret not trying at all. When it gets right down to it, I don't think I would regret failing one bit. Failure is part of life, and since I've moved here I've failed plenty of times. Probably more times than I've succeeded. But the value of my few successes outweighs my many failures, and that's the key.
I've gotten a good job, learned and grown more than I would have imagined possible, met dozens of amazing people, made lifelong friends, co-founded an organization, and I'm happier than I've ever been. Not only that, but I'm excited for the future.
I've still got a long way to go, but I'm so glad that I had the courage and drive to go out of my comfort zone, into a completely foreign situation, all alone, and just do it. Granted, I was extremely lucky to have the full support of my parents and family, but even if I hadn't I think I still would have gone out and done it.
Of course, this is not advice for everyone. It's not really advice at all, just my own experience. Yours may vary. Best of luck.
I took shitty jobs that made me appreciate the perks of sitting behind a desk. I roamed around a dirt poor social circles which made me appreciate money. I hung with happy hippies who didn't give a shit about what society said thought about them and learned what inner peace means.
My perspective about measuring success and failure was changed by my post high school experiences. I chase goals and dreams differently now because I got all the fun and partying out of my system and look back on my life with fond memories of all the excitement I had.
Its like I'm not working hard to I can retire and have fun again you know? I know what the uninhibited lifestyle is like and the pros and cons. I choose to live a more calm life because I made a rational decision. Not because I feel like I'm pressured by social norms or external expectations.
Now I have a good 9-5 job, some freelance clients, two failed saas businesses, two content sites. I work hard now but only real difference between me and people in similar situations is our age and how peaceful we are internally.
If everything around me crumbles and I have nothing again I'm sort of ok with that. I don't worry if I missed out on anything and can relate to the joy and struggles of entirely different classes of people.
I guess that brings me a sort of peace when I'm working a long night or putting in extra effort. I just don't get stressed out about things and there is no nagging voice telling me to relax, I did that already. ;)
If I were you I'd fuck about, take a furniture delivery job, work in a kitchen and do things only a 20 year old body can handle. Make friends with people who you'll probably never be able to meet again after your CS career takes off and overall, relax.
Gain life experience instead of computer experience.
==Kansas City Probably the heart of Silicon Prairie right now, it has amazing areas like the Kansas City Startup Village where hackers live together in houses next door to each other powered with Google Fiber. (Need help with something in iOS? Walk a house down and ask the guys in the other place. That type of thing) Not only is it a great city with great BBQ, beer and history, but it the biggest emerging tech scene in the Midwest. This includes, but isn't limited to http://eyeverify.com/ http://www.gethandprint.com/ etc etc etc
==Lincoln, Nebraska Home of the University of Nebraska, it is an emerging tech center with new accelerators and venture capital firms in its sister city like http://dundeeventurecapital.com/ (Omaha is an hour away by car) and other avenues for funding like http://www.investnebraska.com/ and the http://www.nebraskaangels.org/. The fastest growing private company in Nebraska is http://www.hudl.com/, which started as a 3-person startup, but now has 3 offices in two cities. Similarly, the university is in the process of launching Innovation Campus which almost doubles the land area of its campus and includes maker spaces, business accelerators, and more.
Also, learning programming before enrolling in a CS program is from my experience the best path to not failing out. Professors do not really teach programming. They give assignments and do their best at lectures which doesn't really help your brain think programmatically.
As obvious as it sounds, you should go into the field that you are passionate about.
As one old dude said a long time ago: "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude"
Personally, I wish I started a program of autodidacticism earlier. Teaching myself about business & technical subjects that interested me. Also, make a habit of reading biographies of great men. Tremendous lessons can be learned that way.
Finally, read up on Goal Setting and implementing your action plans. *You've got less time than you think. Get Going Now!
Think about the other stuff you're probably planning to do with the next decade: work some entry-level jobs, live with your parents, sit on the sofa, play a lot of video games, etc. Why not drive a submarine or work with satellites or something instead?