Wow, I'm reading all those posts and thinking about how lucky I am. I'll be 27 in July, and I work in the IT field as a Network Admin. All I ever did was finish high school. I am self taught and basically just worked jobs to pay the bills up until about 3 years ago. I was lucky enough to start learning computers back when dos5.0 was in use, now I have friends who went to school and can't find jobs.
It's a crazy world. On the one hand, I have no debt (other than my car, which will be paid off by the end of the year), on the other hand, these kids going to school should end up making more than me. The problem is education vs. experience. Kids fresh out of school don't want to work for sub 40k/yr salary - they want to start over 60k/yr, most companies would rather hire the guy with years of experience instead of fresh cert'd graduates.
My advice - do well in school, study hard - and take what jobs you can find. In the IT field, people are always jumping for the next job with a higher salary. Just realize that your resume will speak volumes about your work ethic.
Good Luck.