I have a personal epiphany. When I was younger, I thought that I would investigate the world in all of its details: understanding even small things thoroughly. I would understand everything in a "materialistic but spiritual" way. This program was vague, but that is one of the reasons I couldn't finish a degree -- I got distracted by Steve Vogel's biology books, by social network theory, by everything that my actual very narrow dissertation couldn't remotely encompass.

So  here I am: now I am seeing the world through the lens of world languages instead: will this take me to the same place?

I can travel (virtually) through video logs on youTube, I can learn to speak and (especially) read foreign novels - I am free to spend all day working on this -- GO FOR IT!