Yup. At 13 I was working summers and school-breaks traveling with a state circuit for circus tours. Ended up taking absences constantly until I almost failed two years straight till I was 15. I was very lucky to have the counselor I have to advocate for me, otherwise I would have dropped out in middle-school.

Towards end of freshman year I was working at a breakfast-dinner family restaurant as a line-cook nearly full-time. Eventually transferred to facilities maintenance work while going to trade-school while in high-school junior-senior. Worked at a church built in the 1800s starting off as a tile-cutter for asbestos tile replacement for historic building of the church and daycare center that was converted parish-housing. Not that any of it mattered anyways because it was all minimum wage.

My life has always been poverty. I have the ability to fix your main-line of your toilet, your toilet itself, I can caulk, fit bath-tubs, windows and other various housing "accessories" and I can also work with low voltage electrical cert-wise, HVAC, asbestos, landscaping, roofing and almost every trade you can think of besides for ironworking and boiler-making. I don't like to reveal much about myself but I'm not even 30.