You aren't alone! Mike Rowe is a big proponent of work-as-education and work skills. Yeah, if you really like engineering, or want to be a doctor or lawyer, you need what a college has to offer.

Trades are sorely neglected, and most don't have the temperament for the kind of study needed for being doctors. "Dirty work" is seen as a place for ignorant people. There are such awful stigmas about doing trade work.