I also dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot or attack helicopter pilot. I played all the serious Jane's flight simulators, watched "Wings" and its spin-offs on the Discovery Channel every night, poured over books about military aviation, etc. I managed to get ROTC scholarships from both the Air Force and Army, and I actually went through with becoming an Army helicopter pilot.

I did well, graduated from flight school at the top of my class, but I knew within a couple years of flying (or, more generally, being an aviation officer) that it wasn't something I wanted to do long-term. I had studied CS in college while doing ROTC, and I started looking for a path to get back to doing something with my CS degree.

In retrospect, I always say that I'm glad I pursued the aviation thing when I had the chance. I think I would have regretted not doing so, and now I have some stories to tell. On the other hand, it has been hard to watch the booming job market for software engineers over the past ten years, making me wonder if I too would be making $500k+/year now at a big tech company with a better quality of life for my family if I had gone down that path instead.

By the way, I was also terribly afraid of heights. It turns out that when piloting an aircraft, even with cockpit doors removed from a helicopter, that fear just never bothered me because I was so focused on the task at-hand, often task-saturated.