My parents were both programmers at one point, though what they do now could best be described as project management. Tedious work with vacuous, self-possessed drones and an occasional sense of satisfaction with the outcomes after having completed a large project. But my father is at home all the time (ie. miserable) because he hated dealing with people and my mother comes home drained from the negativity of other miserable office drones and aggressive bosses. Of course, there is a certain degree of perspective involved in not allowing yourself to succumb to negativity and depression when you are around incompetence and greed, but nonetheless it makes one pause for thought and consider not going the same route.
At first, I had set my eye on jazz guitar (a short and cursory phase that I outgrew after I had been rejected from university, rediscovered my love for classical and then had to figure out what I really could do), and then I did a general year of Liberal Arts courses (mostly). I would have avoided this, but it turns out that a certain amount of Liberal Arts credits are mandatory for graduation. It put a new perspective on the state of the education system for me, as I could neither relate to the material most of the time, or when I did, it was fleeting and returned to drudgery and boredom. It wasn't entirely useless, but might as well have been for the amount of money that I paid for courses that I could have easily taught myself had I scoured the internet or read a book about the subjects. In my 2nd year, I decided I'd attempt to major in Anthropology, but let myself resort to pleasures and self-pity, which eventually resulted in a lack of motivation to do anything for long periods of time which then turned into depression. And since then I've recommitted to a field that I find will be both stimulating, productive and lucrative: Biotechnology. Conservation Ecology sounded nice and fuzzy too (which is a branch off specialty from Biology rather than the Liberal alternative of Environmental 'Science'), but Biotechnology seems all around more pertinent to modernity.
Just my 2 cents. I presume after I've finished the degree and start looking for real work, I'll have a more thorough perspective.