I wish I did have some hobby that involved creating, some form of mathematics, or anything I learned with my degree.... I can't say a job is one... my degree is pretty useless....
Failing and struggling in data structures in CS is equivalent to saying a mathematician struggles in algebra... needless to say, failure is a great teacher.. and it's hilarious to think of what went through people's mind when I told them what topics I was struggling on.
I touched coding 8 years ago.. high school AP Computer Science. I was bad at it until only 4 years ago.. when I failed my first data structures class. I was struggling with something as basic as linked lists and was so disappointed in myself that I was wasting money...
I genuinely think the best advice you can give someone is "the best time is now"... the earlier you realize how long things in life really take, the more you drop resistance