At the end of the day, flying airplanes is just a job. After the "newness" of a new job wears off, it will become like all others - simply something you do for money and probably kind of a grind. It also seems as if you put up a few barriers - the "airlines are not for you" and you seem kind of locked in to SoCal (for obvious reasons - health insurance, etc). You also make a statement that if you don't take this job you will most likely be "out of work for a year". This should be corrected to "I will be out of work in a flying job for a year".
Flying is probably more fun than some jobs. Certainly it has advantages to other things and I can see the appeal - but maybe you need to define why it is that you work, and why you long term priorities are. A job is a job - you are selling your time for money - that's all it is. People talk about such foolishness as "being happy at what they do" but if you think about it, that's just silly. Nobody is happy 100% of the time with what they do. Doesn't matter if you are a prostitute or the CEO of Exxon, you're just trading time for money - that's all a job is.
If you are looking to find fulfillment in a job, or looking for "happiness" in a job (or industry sector) I'm afraid you will be disappointed. I have goals, I have things I like to do, and I have priorities that I try to satisfy. I only have 24 hours in a day to accomplish these things, 5 or 6 of which need to be spent sleeping, leaving 18 to 19 hours of productive time per day to accomplish these goals. Incorporate business goals/priority goals into two meals per day (breakfast and lunch meetings five days per week) and you mitigate lost time eating, leaving you 18-19 hours on those days as "productive time". The point is this - I have goals and priorities and I fit my productive time to meet them. I set my own priorities and goals - those belong to me - and then I find a vocation that will allow me to meet them. If you work for someone else, they are going to be setting your goals and priorities for the time you have sold to them - so make damn sure that you are selling that time for an amount that will allow you to meet your personal goals. I'm afraid that many people enjoy flying (for obvious reasons) and many enjoy the lifestyle (different strokes for different folks) and some make the decision based on things like "It is better than being stuck at a desk or in a mechanics bay all day". Those making that decision are not really choosing "for" something - they are choosing "against" something.
Look at your decisions "Strategically" - long term and like a chess game. I see lots of people make decisions "Tactically" - short-term and reactive. You need both kinds of decision making, but one is worthless without the other. Create a strategic plan - where you want to be in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years - and then you can have tactical plans to manage things that come up in the pursuit of your strategy - but always with your end goals in mind. If you don't know where you are going you will never arrive there nor will you be able to manage progress toward that goal. It is my hunch that at the end of the day you will find that family trumps most everything.
EDIT: In short, there would be FAR fewer "decision to make" threads about things if people simply improved their decision making skills - not just the OP, but others. Think of it this way: Questions are asked of the interwebz...and we don't know your goals, dreams, priorities or anything else. I've always thought that was kind of silly (and I always thought it was because the person posting the question was either looking for validation for their decision, or at the least looking for cogent arguments to help convince someone else to support a decision they want to make) - so I always looked at these decision threads less as a "valid" thing, and more as a "help me build a case/justify/create an excuse" thing. The more I read them, the less I think that though - and I simply thing that the whole decision making process of many younger people is simply flawed. Everyone thinks kind of short term and focus on the tactical - lurching from one thing to another - and I'm not certain if many actually have an "end-game" in mind. Again, this isn't just the op on this thread - it is a lot of people. I would encourage people to work on decision making skills - how to form a plan and execute it. It will make your like easier and you will accomplish goals faster.
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