I have been trying to turn my life around.

Think. Seriously. Think very hard about what life has to offer. It is true that stable, somewhat boring lifestyles with steady income and socially acceptable career paths are offered by high grades and awesome career performance. But what is the inverse of this?

Here's an example: I went to an Asian country last year to do an internship. It was a great job in a great field and it looks great on my resume, but I needed cash. I worked nights at a club 4 days per week, in addition to my internship 5-6 days per week. The lifestyle was brutal, but the fun was ridiculous.

The crazy part is that I look more fondly upon my experience working at the club than my internship. It was the best finance experience I've ever had and I learned more about Excel, business and client relations, yada yada than ever, but working at the club offered something different. Yes, my coworkers at the club were uneducated, mostly oblivious of the technical details of economics, politics, and the general "why's" of the world, but I was much happier there. I had a better story to tell, got more money out of it, got ganja like it was legal, and most remarkable of all: the people at the club had more stable lives than the people at my internship. They were married, or with longtime girlfriends, some had kids, some were actual business persons.

The point is that life has much more to offer than what is deemed "right" by everyone other than you. That's a lesson you can't teach; even my telling it to you now isn't enough. You'll learn it yourself at one point.

For now, find a way to stop stressing what "is" or "isn't" in your life, and look at things differently. Find out what you have to do, and just do it.

If you want something to relate to, besides all the aforementioned stuff:

I failed out of college once, I have a disgustingly bad GPA (I wish I had a 3.0), and my math skills are ridiculously terrible. I passed calculus 2 before passing calculus 1, all because my fundamentals are so fucked up. AND I'm an econ major from a GARBAGE school. Where does this put me?

I've got 3 very solid internships at mid-market firms, not just tiny boutiques. I've got interviews lined up for work beginning next month. Now that I'm an adult and know how to study, I'm working on the GMAT and CFA. If things go well, I might make it into a T2 MS Finance program for next year. Considering my experience and (hopefully by then) solid credentials, I should have a shot at the kind of job I want.

That's called hustle. Like the guy before me said, there is no try, only do or do not.

Granted, that's all postulating. I'm predicting being in a better-than-nothing recruiting scenario, with an extra $30K in debt, and even that may not all work out. But I had to become comfortable with that. I had to become comfortable with failure, too. At one point, I even seriously considered dropping everything and moving abroad with the bit of cash I had.

But once you grow a little bit, it dawns on you that nothing is as serious as it seems. GPA is an indicator of past performance, not of your potential.

Evaluate what you want. Be smart about it too - no existential, emotional, or family bullshit. Retreat from your every day interactions and give yourself the opportunity to discover what your goals really are, because if you're performing poorly, it means that a part of you is in conflict with what your adult or business-minded self wants to do.

TL;DR version: ace the GMAT, do a MSF/MBA, get internships, ???, profit.