I'm not an ME, but, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express one night...
Anyway, ME is a great degree to have, and will open many, many doors for you. I've been fortunate enough to work with some really good ones. The Kansas farm boy types who have their degree and also know from real world experience how to fix the tractor with bailing wire, or how to chuck something up in a lathe or run a part through a mill, etc. These are the guys that you will learn from.
As far as class, it has been my experience that classtime is for lectures, and your own time is for studying and completing homework. Be careful of how much of a load you take on. If you can live at home so you won't have to work a part time job to pay rent and utilities while trying to cram in your studies, all the better. The quantity and the difficulty of the material will be substantial, but not unmanagable unless you are overloading yourself. Do what you can to put school first. If the folks are paying the bill, that would be great. If you attend classes far from home, stay in the dorm. Whatever you can do to minimize outside distractions. Now, I know, beer and girls will come into the equation, just try not to let it ruin your school life!
And, as you progress through school, look for summer intern positions with established companies. The experience you gain will be invaluable.
For now, look for "Physics 101" level books. They'll generally cover a wide variety of ideas in managable chunks and will get you thinking in the right direction. You can move up and read ahead as much as you want, and you'll be that much more prepared. And math, lots and lots of math... Two books come to mind that you should be able to handle: "Asimov on Physics" by Isaac Asimov (the science fiction writer), and "Physics for Technology", the author escapes me, but Rich knows who it is. Betts, maybe? I'll look at it later this evening. But they both present a varied group of principles and topics in near-layman's terms.