I'm an AA furloughee (in the last bunch in March).
I'm a hideously practical person, and unwilling to put in yet another year or two at slave-wages at another company which may or may not be a going concern in the long term. I'd already decided to take advantage of the Montgomery GI bill to go back to school to do something that was a) monetarily worthwhile and b) worthy of the kind of respect that I'd laughingly assumed I could find in aviation.
My wife, after putting in a year at school to get her pre-reqs out of the way, has been accepted at nursing school.
Long story short, I've decided, after much research, to sort of follow in her footsteps. That is, I'm going to get my own BS in nursing, then go on to become a nurse anesthetist. I'll have to spend a little time at school with some clueless 19 and 25-year olds, but in the end it'll be worth the trouble.
Years ago, after two painful years waiting for the AF to give me a classdate, I finally made it to UPT. Eleven years later, I left the AF. Six months later I got hired at AA. I was certain I knew what my career trajectory was going to be. But 9/11 happened, and along with everyone else, I was rudely awakened to reality.
Although I feel now that I've wasted the last 14 years of my life traveling down a blind alley, I also know that I'm not dead yet. I have a family, and will not subject either them or me to the nearly endless amount of preparation that becoming a medical doctor entails. But I can manage to become a nurse anesthetist in six years, and eventually enjoy the 100 to 250k salary that nurse anesthetists command.
Money, of course, isn't everything; I personally had decided to apply to med school 14 years ago---but then the AF finally called with a classdate, and that avenue closed off for me. So it goes. I no longer have the time to do now what I could've done 14 years ago, but I can get close.
And, eventually, unless AA goes the way of Eastern or Pan Am, the company will recall me from furlough. But by then I plan to have an extremely lucrative fall-back position. I never again will allow myself to be at the mercy of circumstance, criminals, or the economy. People will always need hospitals, no matter what happens in Afghanistan, Iraq, or New York.
I used to love to fly. I still like flying, but I refuse to end up as some burnt-out expat, divorced because he was never home. That's no way to live.
My point is only this: we're pilots, and all intelligent people. There are many things out there in this brave new world for intelligent people to do. Don't lose sight of the options.
Finally, I congratulate those of you who are or will be lucky enough to back the right aviation horse, and be able to retire after a full career at a company that makes all the right decisions. I congratulate you on your luck. It's a great gig if you can manage it.