Would you sacrifice your adolescence to follow your dreams?

A few days ago, I was reading this article on Yahoo about this amazing 16 year baseball player. He had just appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, referred to as "The Chosen one" and, if my knowledge of baseball serves me correctly, his stats were extraordinary, given that he's only a sophomore in high school.

The thing that caught my attention in this story, however, was that he and his father decided that he would drop out of high school, get his GED and enroll in a community college so that he could be drafted in the 2010 Draft. He's already guaranteed almost $20 million when he goes pro, along with some other perks.

I don't really agree with this decision. It's not so much because he'll be dropping out of high school-having gone through high school, I know that there are many people that can do much better going to community college than high school. I just feel that he may not have thought about if he's psychologically ready to make such a jump into adulthood.

Granted he's an amazing baseball player for his age, but why the rush to go pro? He's already proven that he has the talent to back up the hype, so I doubt that he'll be at any disadvantage if he waits another year or so. And since he's just a sophomore, he hasn't had much exposure to playing in front of big crowds, so who knows how the pressure might affect him.

The last point I'd like to make is that I feel that if he jumps right into the Major Leagues now, he'll miss out on some of the best years of his life. it doesn't take an expert to know that training and practice takes a lot of time out of your schedule, and by the looks of this kid's stats, he must have been practicing almost every day since he was old enough to hold a bat. But at least with high school baseball, there are only so many days that you have to dedicate yourself to sports, leaving you some time to just hang out and do things that teenagers do. And with him being surrounded by older guys, he might find it hard to "fit in"-not in the superficial "popular kids' group" way, but just someone that's around his age that he can relate to.

Perhaps I'm not giving him enough credit; maybe he's already thought all this through and feels ready to handle it. Maybe he'll experience all this and become a stronger player and overall person because of it. Either way, he's made up his mind, and clearly nothing will stop him from carrying this plan out. I'm glad to hear that his parents are fully supporting this decision (I don't know what I'd do if I were to take so great a risk without my parents rooting me on), and are standing by him no matter what. I just hope for the best for him, and that he's making the right decision for himself.

Question: If you had a chance to follow your dream career path though success isn't guaranteed, but in return had to drop out of high school, would you do it? Why or why not?

Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to your replies!

EDIT: In another more recent article I read about this subject, Bryce (the baseball player) has admitted that he's been very bored hanging around high school, and feels he is ready for college as well as being around older folks. This kid-excuse me, young man is way more mature than I perceived him to be.