Yeesh, this all sounds eerily familiar. I assume you're either up to your ears in AP classes or muddling through the IB program on top of everything else?

Part of the reason this all seems so exciting to you right now is because you're accustomed to success, and are making assumptions of future success that Murphy's Law suggests aren't all grounded in reality. When I was in high school, there were plenty of college bridge programs with "conditional" job offers attached and projections of massive pilot shortages in the immediate future. In the intervening years, one of the only things that has remained constant in this business is that places like ERAU are still filling classes.

I'm not in the business of p!ssing in people's Cheerios on this board, but since you're clearly way ahead of the curve for teenagers setting out plans and goals, you would do well to make plans for what you will do if these bridge programs all disappear before your eyes just as you become eligible for them. Or if even the dreaded right seat RJ job is unattainable for someone right out of college, as is often the case now. Or if East Asia's economic growth stalls, rendering all current projections of global pilot demand null and void. Or if any of the unassailable geniuses in airline management decide they're going to give "shrink to profitability" another try.

It'll be ten years to the day from my high school graduation in a couple of weeks. The retirement age was 60, Northwest, America West and Continental were all over the ramp at my hometown airport, crude oil was $25 a barrel, the majors were going to rebound from 9/11 any day now, and everyone with half a brain knew Air Wisconsin was going to hire up every college flight department grad they could get their hands on forever and ever amen. Relative to a lot of pilots in my age bracket, I've done well for myself - flight training and a bachelor's degree with no debt, a "been there, done that" t-shirt from the regionals, and welcome changes of scenery flying overseas. And I can tell you that career projections I made in high school and a degree that says "Aviation Technology" on it have had squat-all to do with my (relative) success. It had much more to do with being flexible and learning ways to make myself useful outside the cockpit. Particularly on furlough.

Please understand, first and foremost, that many of these calls for you to expand the scope of your decision making process are coming from people who were in absurdly similar situations to yours not all that long ago.