jayology

hello everyone im a new member as you can tell =]. Well I found this site by googling out what a CNA is/does. I stumbled across these forums and I can tell this is a very helpful site. Well I am 18 years old attending a junior college for the first time and im half way into the semister. My current goal is to be a RN, but that path is very very confusing for the first timer. My mindset right now is to get my 2yrs of pre-reqs then apply for a RN program. I heard of a CNA today from my aunt and she said its a good start to becomming a nurse. Well basically I just want to ask for opinions and advice from everyone out there who is already experienced. I have thoughts of doing the CNA course after my semester ends, then hopefully go to school AND have that cna job. Money is a huge factor for me, as I will be paying for my own future education ( due to family instability ), so I thought that I'd be a CNA to raise my pay from my current part time job of $8.00/hr. I called the place where they have the CNA course and its $795 + $100 registration for a 6 week course. They also have a lvn course which is $2300 and takes 14 months. The mind boggling questions that are floating above my head are: Should I work as a CNA full time and save up for a lvn program? Should I work as a CNA and still go for my pre-reqs? OR save up right now and enter the lvn program ? I know that there can be thousands of insights on how I can approach this, so your comments are very much appreciated. Edit:And by the way, the name's Jared. Thanks for reading !!:wink2: