"The secret is that any of these can be right answer, and you should make your decision based on the specific circumstances of each option."
My general advice to ambitious young people - go do something fun, interesting, and challenging that your unique age allows. Generally, this means it is something made possible by the combination of an abundance of free time and absence of major life responsibilities (like bills and children). So long as it meets all 3 of those characteristics, if you think you'd want to do it someday, just do it now. Leave the US and travel. Go to college and have fun (but remember that challenging is one of your key characteristics, and don't forget to challenge yourself). Start a company. You are 19. If you fail, no one will hold it against you, and you'll never regret it if you actually did something fun, challenging, and interesting.
The one piece of (slightly depressing) advice I would add this: student loans can be great for ambitious 19 year olds. Just know that you have to start repaying them 6 months after you quit going to school (if you can, only take subsidized loans and do your best to pay at least the interest+at least $1 towards principal of the rest while in school. Had one friend who did this, and I was shocked at the difference it made, perhaps naively), and if what you do after that doesn't allow to rapidly pay them off, you'll lose a lot of the freedom you had at 19 before you expected (coming from someone who has a small enough loan burden to have some freedom as a 25 year old, but large enough to prevent me from simply not having a steady income).
"The secret is that any of these can be right answer, and you should make your decision based on the specific circumstances of each option."
My general advice to ambitious young people - go do something fun, interesting, and challenging that your unique age allows. Generally, this means it is something made possible by the combination of an abundance of free time and absence of major life responsibilities (like bills and children). So long as it meets all 3 of those characteristics, if you think you'd want to do it someday, just do it now. Leave the US and travel. Go to college and have fun (but remember that challenging is one of your key characteristics, and don't forget to challenge yourself). Start a company. You are 19. If you fail, no one will hold it against you, and you'll never regret it if you actually did something fun, challenging, and interesting.
The one piece of (slightly depressing) advice I would add this: student loans can be great for ambitious 19 year olds. Just know that you have to start repaying them 6 months after you quit going to school (if you can, only take subsidized loans and do your best to pay at least the interest+at least $1 towards principal of the rest while in school. Had one friend who did this, and I was shocked at the difference it made, perhaps naively), and if what you do after that doesn't allow to rapidly pay them off, you'll lose a lot of the freedom you had at 19 before you expected (coming from someone who has a small enough loan burden to have some freedom as a 25 year old, but large enough to prevent me from simply not having a steady income).