<human>: Give me the gist of the text in a nutshell

When I was 15, my father died and my sister and I started receiving Social Security payments that continued until I graduated high school. (Which was last May for me.) In total, I ended up with about $35,000 in a savings account that I have full access to. I have spent about $5000 of that on the kind of things I've never been able to have. (Like a computer, some nice clothes, concert tickets, good food, etc.) 

Now I'm starting to panic a little. I took a gap year after high school because of some financial aid weirdness. (My mother took a lot of money out of her retirement fund to start a business and it made it look like my family is in a really high income bracket when in reality, we are in a very low one.) During this time it has been pretty easy to just kind of put dealing with this money on the back burner and watch it slowly dwindle.

But what really concerns me is that I have no idea how to handle this money. Is it best to just leave it be and let it collect interest? Should I just pretend it's not there and save it for an emergency? Should I go ahead and use it to pay for college and avoid future student loan debt? Should I invest it, and if so, what should I invest it in? How would I even go about that? Any advice at all would be welcome.

Just some other info that might be relevant: 

- I am currently working full-time (minimum wage though) and will probably continue until school begins next year. This means that some of that lost money is getting replaced and I work so much that I don't have time to go out and spend it all anyway.

- When I go to college, I'll probably pursue a degree in art or English. I know that these are often considered "useless" degrees, but those are the only areas I have any natural talent or significant interest in. I wish I was more interested in profitable fields, but I am just not.
<bot>: I am 18 and I have more money than I know what to do with, but not enough that I'm set for life. How can I best put it to use or potentially turn it into even more money?