I'll try and keep this short and simple.

I've always enjoyed programming and I've been doing it since high school. Right after I graduated from high school (2002), I opted to skip college because I was offered a software engineer position. I quit after a couple of years later to team up on various startup companies. However, most of them did not launch as well as expected. But it honestly did not matter to me because I've learned so much from that experience.

So fast forwarding to today, now turned 25, I need a job due to this tough economic climate. Looking on Craigslist, a lot of the listings require computer science degrees. It's evident now that programming is what I want to do because I seem to never get enough of it. But just the thought of having to push 2 years without attending any real computer class for an Associates at age 25 is very, very discouraging. And the thought of having to learn from basic (Hello WOOOOORRLLLD) just does not seem exciting.

I guess I have 3 questions to wrap this up:

1. Should I just suck it up and go back to school while working at McDonalds at age 25?
2. Is there a way where I can just skip all the boring stuff and just get tested with what I know?
3. From your experience, how many jobs use computer science degrees as prerequisites?

Or am I screwed and better pray that my next startup will be the next big thing?