Localcadetflyer - hats off to you for taking the time to write an informative post with a reasonable comparison.
However, for the op, if you really want to fly, personally as the days of making reasonable money have come to an end, I'd be inclined to get a degree in something useful, get a real job where $$progression is possible, and use my excess $$ to fly for fun.
People have this fixation that flying big a/c is fun. Let me ask you, what do you think you'd have more fun in, a racing car round a track, a rally car round the city, or a double decker bus on a deserted freeway? Seriously, apart from the departure and arrival, the job can be monotonous to the extreme. That's not to say it's easy - the bean counters who in conjunction with the circus clowns who run the circus think we should be paid less and work more as we appear to do little behind the locked door. However, as pilots we know we get paid for what we CAN do when a wheel comes off the trainset. Thankfully it seldom happens, and when a Surabaya or Sully type incident occurs, pilots become flavor of the month, for a week or so, until the bean counters decide they can't afford to pay mangement(sic) bonuses unless they can cut pilot costs even more. This is the sad reality of the downwards spiral of the profession at present where we have been dummed down to bus driver level - (with apologies to bus drivers).
So, work on your subjects at school that will give you the best chance of uni entry, get a good degree, get a real job, fly for fun in your spare time, aerobatics and formation flying can give you a buzz, kick some parachutists out the door and beat them to the ground. If you want to drop other things, join an air force, they'll teach you how to fly(for free), visit different countries, met new people and bomb them.
If that all fails to convince you to have fun, join CX over KA, security would be better, initial $$ not quite as good, but chances of flying bigger a/c is higher with CX than KA. Be good at eating sandwiches and making the bunks.
Good luck.
Oh, and did I mention consider getting a real job?