The best decision I ever made was to go to go to uni and do a bachelor in design computing, looking at an extra year for honours.
I'm pretty happy with how my degree is panning out, it covers a broad range of graphic design, 3D modelling and progamming all the while emphasising and focusing on design. That and the course only has 30 spots so I know everyone doing my course. Also means we're all on first-name basis with our lecturers which helps a lot I believe. I don't think I would be suited to 'conventional' university.
But back to my point, I wanted to be a game designer. So when told that my major work for programming this semester was to make a game, I was pretty happy. Has to be in Java (the language we're learning at the moment), and that's about the only limitation. I decided not to go innovative for this project, more to see if I could do what's been done before. I'll be picking up the small engine I'm developing now and changing it over the holidays to be more innovative then.
Current Progress is probably about 60%. Here's a screenshot of what I've got so far.
Presenting it in a week, submitting in a week and a half.
All of the above said, during the (ongoing) process of making this game, I've come to the realisation. While I still dream of becoming a game designer one day, I'm happy designing just about anything. Which (hopefully) gives me more options in the future.
And options are good.