What path?

Hello,

Over the last few years I have been interested in the field of programming/game development and hope to someday pursue the path through collage and so on. I am 17 and going into my junior year at high school and lately I have started to work on programming/game development. After browsing through these forums and the internet I came up with the general idea that learning Python as my first language would be best and using it with pygame. So over the last few days I have been doing this and working hard and progressing slowly, but my main questions are these.

1. Should I continue down this path and stay steady?

2. Will these be applicable in the future, such as will I ever use these again?

3. Should I just choose a new system/path to follow that will benefit me more?

4. Any advice on things to do after this/or the new system I have chosen?

All comments/pointers are welcomed, My over all plan is to one day become a game programmer if that helps at all, Thanks in advance!