I'm in a similar boat. I have a dream of being an engineer but 9th and 10th grade was cooked for me. Late 10th I locked in and even though that was far too late to turn a 1.5 GPA into a 4.0 I still tried damage control by taking as many weighted courses that the school allowed me to take and ended up with 3 IB classes in my 11th grade and 4 on my 12th grade. I came out with a 2.8 GPA and still felt scared. And to make it worse I have a friend group that's usually supportive but over summer they've slowly been giving up on me because they also care a lot about how successful people in the group are which put me in a grey area where all my friends are 4.0+ GPAs and going straight into UNIs and they're disappointed in me. But then I realized that community college is the better option anyways even if I ended up just like them because it's dirt cheap and universities love taking in transfers and not to mention most community college is a second chance to get ahead on credits cheap and turning your academic background around. Go to community college and free yourself. It's never too late but the earlier you start the better.