Personal development can be achieved under the most unlikely circumstances.  All you need to have is a goal and to keep firmly in your mind.

Personal development is not dependent on other people's help or approval, on relevant schooling or your financial situation; it is only dependent on your determination to change things for the better.

You are as dependent or independent as you want to be.

There is only so much we can blame others.  The time comes where we have to take responsibility for ourselves and attemp to make some of our dreams come true, or we will end up looking back over our life and discovering that we were a dutiful father or mother, son or daughter, husband or wife, but that we have not lived our own life and achieved our own personal goals.