In my opinion, you should find something out there that uses the skills you now have, or uses skills that you would enjoy acquiring. Good luck in that endeavor.
You asked for us to tell you about our jobs/careers. I can tell you about my career but the skills piece is paramount. If you don't have the skills you can't do my job, or even start on the path to it, and you can't acquire these skills in a short period of time. I'm sure you are aware that you have to make the choice that you are going take a certain path and all that it entails (stress, etc). And that applies to most any job that pays well. You will have to dedicate time to acquire the skills necessary to get your foot in the door. Then, to continue receiving raises you have to continuously improve those skills, and acquire new ones. It is not easy to choose, which is why 95 percent of us work in a career that maybe provides satisfaction in some ways, but is not what we would be doing if we didn't have to provide for our families.
As for my career, I am a Senior Network Engineer specializing in Cisco converged networks and call center programming. My job pays very well, has good benefits, good vacation time, and the company understands that time with family is important. It can be very stressful at times though. While I have the freedom to set my work hours I have customers whose entire corporate networks depend on the work I do and the buck stops with me. I have to satisfy them, so to avoid disrupting their operations a lot of network events have to be performed after business hours, or during slower periods which tend to be weekends and nights. Simpler activities are performed by lower level engineers. Complex activities are performed by me. When it is slow I will work 40 - 48 hours a week, but when it is busy I don't get to walk away and forget about it every day as a project can last for months and the day can end on a huge problem that needs to be resolved and can't wait until tomorrow.
As for the path to my position, I didn't start at this level. I have a bachelor's degree in business administration with two majors. I was in middle management for a trucking company but changed careers at age 39. At that point I started studying and obtained my A+ and MCSE IT certifications which was enough to get me in the door at my current employer, but I took a tremendous drop in pay from my previous position because of my lack of experience in the field. I then acquired my Cisco certifications: CCNA, CCNP Routing and Switching, CCNP Voice, CCNP Collaboration, CICCEP, etc. Many of these certs are 4 or 5 tests that are not easy when you obtain them the first time. Then they have to be renewed every 3 years by taking a single test. These certifications would be the equivalent of a Masters degree in networking at a university. I have been in this field for 17 years now.
I provide all of this to you to point out that you don't get to high pay without a great deal of effort. On my career path, if you acquire the minimum skills you can start out above the $17/hour figure you mentioned. But you have to have a minimum set of skills first. From there, if you are willing to study in your off-hours you can make a great deal more. Unfortunately, very few people get a job that pays well with good benefits and raises without making some sacrifices. Unless you know someone who is going to give you a leg up, you will have some work in front of you.
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