I've had this thought for a while, and after reading this whole thread, maybe this is a good place to put it...

I've got many friends whom I graduated high school with that have all pursued different professional careers. Here is what they've told me, first hand, what they are going through...

Architect: 5 years of school, minimum 3 year apprenticeship building models and such before you can even take the test to be a licensed architect.

Lawyer: 6+ years of expensive schools, multiple unpaid internships, massive debt, low starting pay, extremely competitive job market.

Teacher:4-6 years of school. Pay for student teaching positions, extremely tough job market depending on location, mediocre wages

Psychiatrist: 6+ years of school, graduate credentials demand a high salary, tons of debt, competitive job market

Nurse: 4+ years of school. Work on the floor cleaning up sh!t and vomit for a few years, top out at maybe
$120k

Financial analyst: 4 years of college, get lucky, make $100k out of college working for JP Morgan (mother *********).

My point is that all professional trades require the same trade-offs that airline pilots face, if not more. Yes there are plenty of day jobs (sanitation worker, mailman, barber, wal mart "executive") that would definitely pay the bills with little to no overhead. And being an airline pilot is by no means glamorous. But in my opinion, whoever thinks it's all about the money severely needs to reevaluate their view on life.

To the OP: if you want to shovel elephant crap, go find the nearest circus. If you want to fly, go find a flight school or someone with a plane. There's a lot of guys on here that are just bitter and hate their jobs, and will preach that it's not worth it. So don't use this place to make career/life decisions. I just don't want to see you fall trap to the typical douchebaggery that goes on in these forums and wind up at a desk 10 years from now thinking "what if?"