he ended up doing poorly ; he dropped out ; he ended up back in the sticks , in that wide hot , hollow place , that suburb on the edge of nowhere , where time passed slowly and half the people were struggling to pay their bills and the other half were feeling sorry for you and offering to place you in this or that family friend 's law office so you could make a few bucks doing nothing until you got your head on straight and got let back into the respectable school .