Thanks for the advice everyone.
So all this information is a bit too much for me to absorb at the minute, haha. But I get the sense that what you're all trying to tell me is to pursue math, and fly on the side if I get the chance.
I've heard that analogy before - about pilots being a lot like crane operators. But still, a crane operator never goes more than a few hundred feet above the ground...
How exciting is it to fly in a general aviation airplane, which is much smaller than an airliner?