One thing life has taught me thus far, your well laid plan will not survive contact with reality (or mother nature). I had it ALL laid out a couple of months ago. Get my ME, finish my AS with ERAU, and head to MAPD in Jan. (I'm acronym man, watch me type) Then this monster named Charley screwed things up royally. I haven't been in a plane since 8/13 (yeah, that was a Friday, too), US Air is swirlling fast, and I'm forgoing the MAPD route for a CFI route. Finally, things seem to be falling into place. I got a job with another airline, my mom has agreed to co-sign for a loan to finish my commercial and CFI ratings, and I may actually be able to get all that done by the time I'm 30 (next year). Definately a career that has its ups and downs, but this is something I've thought about a lot. I want this bad enough to weather the downs and enjoy the ups. Just stick with it, and eventually things will fall into place.