If you're smoking and drinking your life away, living in regret and self pity, and not investing in yourself and your own education, you're doing it wrong. Life doesn't get easier over time. Your job is to do better than your parents ever did and to outshine them in every way possible. Take risks, learn something new, look for opportunities and don't sit there thinking they'll come to you. Own your mistakes, move on from them, and get to work.