re: Is there anything that I should know before trade school?

I read this whole thread and I see a lot of 100k a year a thrown around. If you truly want to make that without going to any school go find a company hiring a deckhands on a tugboat... Dupre Marine, Marquette, Triple S, Enterprise, Broussard Brothers, Blessed, Florida Marine, Lorris G, Turn Services, Kirby, Lebouef Brothers, D&S Marine, Genesis, Crosby Tugs. Be a deckhand for a year, tankerman in a year, steersman in 2, running a boat/relief captain in under 5 years.

Boat companies don't crew boats with foreign labor so the labor market is pretty good. The bad thing is your gone at least half the year, the good thing is you home at least 1/3 of the year.