I bolted college a bit early, and I have found some nice niches in the work force. If it helps, great; if not, good luck.
The OP mentioned serving/waiting tables, and being decent at it. Upscale restaurants are fantastic places to earn a legit living; if you are near a hotel/resort, find a steakhouse inside it and enjoy. Folks in the tourist/convention center areas near Orlando easily take home over $40K annual (with no state income tax), don't work nights, and only wait on 20-30 people a night. If you aren't near a tourist area, then find a Ruth Chris-type of steakhouse. I loved working in that particular restaurant industry, and it completely bankrolled me going to school during the day for my current career. Banquet serving is a little better money, but is pretty hard work, that I never enjoyed like I did working in steakhouses.
I ended up taking EMT for a semester at community college, which was literally decided on a coin flip (real estate school or EMT school). During my EMT ride-alongs with Fire Department Paramedics, I got to see how several different FD shifts were.....then I was hooked! Fire school was about 400 total hours, which took about six months to finish. It takes a while to get an FD job currently (unless you are a paramedic), but I have the greatest job and schedule you can imagine. 24 hours on, 48 hours off, 18 shifts a year off; which means I work 102 days a year, not counting OT or sick days. Great comraderie, great job, fighting fire is awesome, helping folks is awesome; however, there is a ton of BS calls where people only call for a ride to the hospital, I am around more bodily waste and cat people than I'd ever imagine, and when bad calls happen it's tough to suck it up and keep going to calls. Most FD jobs start in the mid30s, and if you are in a state with a Union presence then the pay will increase quickly.