Why look at extremes? OK so in your case it was either pump gas or have a good job - but not every situation is the same. Then again, who am I to tell you what is the right way: I moved out of my parents' house at 17, pretty much made my own decisions, left the country altogether, married a foreigner, made him leave HIS country, and now we are having the time of our lives, travelling and working around the world. And neither of us is pumping petrol :P