I am debating whether to continue college.

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After some recent events at my job, I have considered going to college to get my bachelor's degree. Here's the thing, though; I remember simply not caring to continue college after getting an associate's. I was left thinking, "wow, I got an associate's, I can totally do something with that in Computer Science *sarcasm*". Unless I knew someone, I wasn't going to be getting a job anytime soon. So, I just looked for a retail job and the rest is history until now. Thing is, I can handle the workload for my job, partially because it is the first time in my life I am getting paid by someone other than my parents, and I have time to myself, even if it's not as much as it used to be. College would have been a lot easier to go through if I had made friends in my time there, but I didn't.

To make a long story short, I have Asperger's, and my parents are fundamentalist Christians. You know, the ones of the Independent Fundamental sort. My main interest is video games and watching movies and anime. The kind of games and movies I play/watch, however, would drive my parents crazy, simply because there was a swear, or because there was a small scene where sexual activity of some kind is involved. In other words, things that you get used to and don't go crazy about since it's not real life. I mention this because what would have made college a lot more bearable for me would be if I had friends. However, due to my dependence on my parents' income at the moment and my job not being something that would let me go and buy an apartment or anything like that, I have made very little attempts to talk to people. Any time I mention talking to someone, they say to try to talk to one of the people at church, because I totally want to talk to someone in their 40s-60s, right? *sarcasm* Even those in my age group can be weird for reasons I couldn't understand. For example, I was hanging out with a girl from my church once, and she didn't even know what Call of Duty was. Let me make something clear: girls at my age outside of my kind of church environment know what Call of Duty is even if they don't play it, while this one girl has apparently been so isolated from the outside world that she doesn't even know what one of the most popular games are if someone mentioned it to her. And this girl, from what I heard, isn't very popular in her class. Then you have my one of my brothers being all spiritual because if he isn't, his wife will get pissed off.

My question is, at a university, considering I don't want to drink, smoke, or do anything irresponsible and that I also want to find friends who are understanding of my Asperger's and that share some of my interests, (I also like to watch movies and anime) do you think I'd be able to find friends with no problem, or would I have to settle for being alone and not having done any networking for getting a job that I can actually live off of? (in other words, be for all intents and purposes, nonexistent) I want your opinions based on your college experience(s). Should I continue college, or try to just focus on finding friends (somehow) who share my interests?

I don't think it can ever be a bad idea to continue with college if a person possibly can do that. I think you should if you can.

I wouldn't worry about the smoking/drinking/acting irresponsible thing -- not everyone in college wants to do those things. There are also more studious people who manage to find and befriend each other. Don't let the stereotype of the "crazy college days" put you off even going to college in the first place. Not everyone has to be that person.

Do what you think will be best for your life, your future, and your opportunities.

I think going back to college could be a very good idea for you. You already have an Associate's in a very technical field, so I doubt it'd take you more than 2 years to get a Bachelor's.

Making friends will definitely help you succeed in college and in life, and the best way to do that in college is just join extracurricular groups while you're there. When you choose a college, look up what extracurricular groups there are on campus, go to some meetings of all the groups that are relevant to your interests, and then figure out which of those groups you like. Through those groups you will make friends sooner or later, and they will invite you to social events. This will also help you make connections outside of the church.

It sounds like you're interested in tech, which is very good. One idea might be data science, which is an insanely profitable field right now. Computer science, computer engineering, and software development are all good fields as well.

I might recommend you try to figure out which in state college is the cheapest, and see how much your parents are willing to invest in you finishing up college. The thing is, to get a good job it might even be worth sticking around another year or two to get your Master's, so the more money you can save, or the less you have to go into debt, the better. Think of college as the first step in your career. Also, while you're in college look into internships and career-related jobs/experience so that you already have something on your resume to start with.

Finally, don't worry about drugs and alcohol. I did my undergrad at the University of Colorado, which is one of the biggest party schools in the country, and some of my most social friends were completely clean-living, and had no problems being that way.

I also really recommend going back to school sooner rather than later. I've seen a lot of people in retail who let the years slip by, and now they're middle aged and still working retail. Don't let that happen to you - your 20s are important for forming the base of your career.