If you are single and unattached, and are disinterested in college now, go and explore other options first. True, it is hard to go back, but it is even harder to finish a four year degree if your attitude isn't right. And incurring debt and getting nothing out of it may not be a good idea right now.
The "standard model" --- high school, college, grad school or job, marriage, kids, all in quick succession --- doesn't work for some people, and these people may be better off in an alternate model, like going to a trade school, getting a job, going to the military or traveling for a while before going to college. When they do go to school, they have a better idea of what they want to pursue in higher education.
However, some advice ---
1) if you are unattached and choose to seek an adventurous path intially, stay unattached. The reason why most people who eschew college will, later, find it hard to go back is simple: they collect a spouse, a child and a lot of debt along the way. Suddenly, with several mouths to feed, quitting a dead end job and going back to college at 40K a year isn't difficult. It's impossible. I worked industrial jobs to pay for college and I met many jack hammer operators whose grandiose schemes were derailed by positive pregnancy tests and wedding bells, in that order.
2) Take from someone who works in "retail" (I am a physician, but that is akin to working in retail), dealing with paying customers all day long, whether it is selling ties, diagnosing illness or working a dive boat, is no picnic. As the dive shop operators and scuba pros on this board will quickly admit, to be a professional requires a love of PEOPLE, not just a love of diving. If you love people, fine, but most people your age haven't had enough experience in life to know that, one way or the other. If you can't deal with the horse's rears that make up much of the general population, and do it with a grin, then being a dive professional is not for you.
3) what looks like a good idea at age 20 ain't necessarily a good idea at age 45... there aren't many piano movers, for example, in their fifties...
A working career for you means working until about 70 (the projected age when your generation can collect pension or social security benefits)...thus, it you want to be a 68 year old divemaster, great, but most people don't last in such jobs for fifty years.
Bodies break down faster than you think. Everyday I see men who were drawn to the high pay of coal mining at age 20 who, at age 45, with an aching back that can no longer stand a 48 inch coal seam and a retirement over twenty years away, must claim disability and end up doing nothing except getting by on a fixed, small income.
Unless you are a pro athlete, the only way to insure a good quality of life long term is to use your MIND, not your BACK. To make a living, remember that you must have some skill that others want to buy. The more unique and in demand that skill, the more you will make and the better security you will have.
If you are going to travel, go somewhere that will force you to learn another language. For example, become a dive pro in Mexico and become fluent in Spanish. Being mutlilingual is a better credential for many jobs than having a Harvard degree and only speaking English.
You may not go to college, but at your age, your mind is a sponge...you must constantly be accumulating skills and knowledge at this time, things will be be an asset later.
Biologically, a 30 or 40 year old brain does not have the ability of the 20 year old brain to assimilate language and motor skills. In fact, by age 25 or 26, the ability to learn begins to diminish. So don't waste the next six years "having a good time" and acting like it's an education.
In conclusion, by all means, chase your dreams. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Rush Limbaugh, Peter Jennings, none of them had a degree (Peter Jennings, the late great journalist, never finished high school). But always keep your options and your mind, open.
