Hey Colby....
Hey kid, come here, listen up.
You are coming up to the point in your life soon where you can decide which direction you would like your life (career) to go. Though this decision is yours to make, you need to know that the direction you go is not always going to be a straight path.
You never know when someone will fly a an airliner into a skyscraper and alter your direction.
I think that I can speak for just about everyone on this board when I say "I was set in my job and working for a retirement".
I never would have thought that 3 days later, my job that I had for over ten years was gone. I loved that job.
Fortunately I had skills as a mechanic. You see, I am not even a pilot. I had worked my up the ladder from being a mechanic at a corporate repair station and ended up as a planner/scheduler. My position was eliminated.
I have a wife and two kids that depend on me for an income and I had to find another job. There were no aviation jobs in my area, so I fell back on what basic skills I learned in high school - diesel mechanic.
At less that half the pay that I was living on, I took a job at a construction company, driving a truck to the jobsites and changing oil on heavy equipment.
I am not looking for pity from no one...I have made it back into aviation and working hard to get back to finding the place in my career that I love.
I do not have a degree, I have an A&P and a mechanic's certificate to work on heavy equipment. I did not go to college I joined the Marine Corps, that is where I learned I loved working on/around aircraft.
I say all of that to say this: Be who you want to be and do what you want to do but, be prepared to have that all taken away and do what you have to do to survive. If you want to be a pilot as a career, get a degree in something other than aviation, something you can fall back on if you have to.
Good luck Colby