What kind of jobs should I look for?

I’m ready to change careers. I spent the last 10 years working my way from minimum wage to retail management, and for the last three years I’ve been a retail wine buyer. It’s kind of a hybrid store management/ purchasing position. I also do marketing, tastings and events, plan out the merchandising, and set prices. One task that developed is I look for wines that will make extra money for the store, negotiate the deal, and then bring it to my boss. It’s a “know it when you see it” kind of thing- I find wines that nobody else is selling, which are high quality and low priced, and then sell it through the mailing list and with in-store promotions at a high margin.

This fall I quit drinking and went back to school as a pre-nursing major. Then my grandmother got pneumonia and died, and I got bronchitis. My family is small so I had to take care of a lot of stuff, and I wasn’t able to take any time off from work. So I was, like, coughing up a lung in the funeral home while we were signing the paperwork. Long story short, I bombed all of my classes this semester. My last grade just came in last night.

My original plan was to find any random office job to tide me over while I finished school. But it seems like if I want to continue, it will have to be at a much slower pace. Also I’m pretty sure that I’ve lost my financial aid, and I moved this summer so I’m not an in-state student.

I am VERY confused right now. Getting any kind of education is starting to seem like climbing mount everest. I really want to do meaningful work, build wealth, and not be stuck in the same fucking store all day. The tedium of spending 50 hours a week in the same place is driving me crazy. The amount I earn is pretty good for not having a college degree, but it’s only enough to pay the bills, and it doesn’t seem like I’m getting anywhere. I want to travel and someday move to a rural, outdoorsy area and buy a small house.

It seems like most of the jobs that are available to me now are meaningless busywork and/or don’t pay any more than what I earn now. But if I look long and hard, maybe I could find a good job with a wholesaler or in the home office of a large retailer. That would be better than what I’m doing now, but it’s a total long shot. I can’t decide whether to continue with school either. Thoughts?