How Should you Decide Your Future as a 19 Year Old?

What do you do with your life as a 19 year old guy? For the last couple months I've been facing down that question. I've got no particularly impressive skills beyond an aptitude for computers & some basics in a bunch of miscellaneous disciplines.

At the same time, I refuse to keep living with parents & little siblings until I figure something out. So what are my options?: 1) Go to college & get a degree for some specialty. 2) Start my own business, online or local. 3) Search for the best job immediately available to me. 4) Go into one of the physical trades like plumbing or construction. 5) The Military either as a computer or medical specialization. 

There's also the question of spending time building my skills independently of whatever option I go with. Should I do that or keep my focus entirely on whatever path I pick?

So I started to solve the problem by narrowing down my options. First off, I'm not going to college. It's terribly expensive & I don't think I'd actually learn a whole lot of things which are both unknown to me & useful. I don't like the idea of spending money for the privilege of sitting through mostly unhelpful classes for half a decade before I can start doing real world stuff.

Second, I'm not starting a business. For a long time I'd been trying to make money online. Since I was about 14 years old actually. Most of my efforts had unfortunately carried the shadow of being a kid & didn't go anywhere. But the reason for not relying on business now is simple: If it works now & I'm making money from it, I'll be capped by my currently lacking life experience. & the odds of it not working are higher. In short, it's an inefficient use of time. All of the remaining other options will do more for me in the next five to ten years.

Third, I'm not taking the first decent job I can find. The reason is mostly that my remaining of options of either entering the trades or entering the military will both pay more, have better employee benefits, both will generally open up much better future career options, & both are actually much easier to get into. By comparison, a regular old job is worse on every mark.

This leaves me with the the choice between a job in the trades & a job in the military. I'll cut the suspense & just tell you I've chosen the military. The reason is pretty simple: Even though the military generally pays less than the trades, it balances that with free or cheaper housing, food, & better benefits. That left it down to preference & I think I'll have a better a time in the military. My Dad was Navy & a lot of the typical drawbacks people experience like suffering culture shock in bootcamp aren't as applicable to me. I also prefer the sorts of jobs I'd be doing there as opposed to the trades.

As of this post, I'm pretty dead set on entering as a Combat Medic in the Army (that's MOS 68W for any Military shmucks reading this). With this I'll learn medical stuff which is sort of a gap in my current education & if I play my cards right, I could pull what amounts to a college scholarship out of a military enlistment while also getting paid. I'm pretty sure I'll find that sort of education much more interesting than work that teaches me how to build a retaining wall or weld.

I won't go into all the details since they basically don't matter & I'm not trying to teach anyone about the structure of the Military.

So what about building skills to eventually start a world-dominating business in parallel to my future military career? I'm of two minds about this. . .

There's almost always more you can do in the place you are in. If I go into the military, for my plan I'm going to need a few college credits that I can pick up online. It seems unwise to split my focus by trying to grind some skill on the side. At the same time, I have to make an allowance for the fact I'm human.

If I end up doing four hours of online chemistry courses, I might still have time in the day, but the thought of more chemistry might make me consider eating glass. At that point, a side project might be wise. 

I'll most likely be signing up in the next month or two after I finish helping my family move. Right this second they need the extra muscle I can provide but as soon as they get settled, I'm getting out of their hair.

So anyways, these have been my thoughts. I hope they help whoever reads this in making whatever tough decision you have. Hopefully seeing my logic will aid you forming your own.

Best,

Jay Norenberg