<human>: I attended an expensive private college after graduating high school, but after the fall semester my father was diagnosed with lung cancer and my school performance faltered. By spring semester, I stopped attending school completely to help take care of my family.

I dropped out after and started attending a community college. I did well in the beginning, but my father's condition got worse and my parents filed for divorce and I ultimately stopped going to classes to once again take care of my family. 

My father's dying wish was to spend a few months in Vietnam and I accompanied him on the trip and then after I returned to Boston I applied as a non-degree student at a state school. 

I was doing fine until my father passed away a month before finals and I sank into depression and retreated from the world - socially, emotionally, academically. 

Now, I really want to get back into school and finish my degree in Psychology (hopefully get a PhD) but I'm not sure which steps to take. Should I continue to be a non-degree student and try to get my grades up or should I forget about it and apply as a freshman all over again since only like 9 credits have good enough grades to get transferred over? My transcripts and GPA are pretty shitty overall, but I have huge confidence in my academic performance, it's just that these past few years have been really crappy.

Give me a shortened version of the text
<bot>: Got shitty grades in 3 different schools because family problems, now I want to get back into school, but not sure how