When I was young, I never had a straight answer to the question of what I want to be when I grow up! Instead I just copied other kids or just said I wanna be a pilot because everybody thinks it's cool - so did I back then. But did I really want to be a pilot or know how to be a pilot at a young age? No.
Did I actually know how to be anything, or was I taught how to be anything when I was young? No. You're taught everything except that. You're taught how to do math, you're taught about the sun, you're taught about chemical substances that you probably will never have to deal with.. but you're never taught how to achieve your dreams or to have goals or learn about life and what you really need to be.
I know past is past and I'm way beyond learning any of that, but now life has taught me a lot. Life has taught me to always have a goal and I know what I want to be when I'm older. I know what I need to be surrounded with when I'm older. I know what would make me happy when I'm older.
I knew all of that, not from school, or my boring classes, but I learned about them from LIFE - which is the best teacher anyone can have.
I wish you a great life man, with your wife and lovely kids. We do share a lot of goals, I wish to get there one day.
Best of luck!
I think that "school" is an attempt to learn "life skills" in a "sterile" environment, where the skills are divorced from the purpose. You measure a line for the sake of measuring a line, buy you do not cut the board to length. You count dots on a page rather than chickens in a pen. You put down an answer on a test rather than living it out.
Something gets lost along the way, or so it seems to me.
At school, it doesn't matter whether you're a Cat or a Monkey; they teach you how to swim regardless.