Post-High School Plan?

So for most of my life, I've been told that I need to pursue a higher education after high school, and that basically my only option was college. That never really sat well with me because I hate the idea of being stuck in an academic environment any longer than I absolutely have to. Recently, I've been feeling really stressed about this because it's right around the corner. Like literal months away. 

I'm very passionate hair/makeup and piercings, so I'm thinking that's the career path I want to pursue. I'll attend cosmetology school and on the side, I'll apprentice as a piercer. That way, I'll have a more solid career by the time I'm 20, and on top of that I won't be miserable with some lame job. I don't really want a job that requires a college degree anytime in the foreseeable future, so I genuinely think this is the best I can do for myself in regard to higher education. 

I think this is also the best thing I can do for my future family. When I have children, I know I'll want to spend as much time caring for them as possible. A job doing hair or makeup along with piercing on the side would give me a lot of time to do this, and I feel that it would increase my overall quality of life. Like I would be genuinely happy.

All I know for sure is that I don't want to be stuck feeling miserable for the rest of my life. I want to have lots of good experiences, and I want to actually see the world and what it has to offer. If I'm stuck at some boring job all the time, I know I'll be unhappy, and that's what I'm trying to avoid.

My parents aren't exactly thrilled about my plan, but it's also not their life and if they'd wanted to play a bigger role in this part of my life they would have started trying to help me earlier on instead of criticizing all of my decisions. Hopefully over time they'll warm up to the idea, but even if they don't they're not going to stop me from pursuing a happy future.