It isn't the diploma that matters; it's the technical methods and mental tools acquired that allow somebody to address the issues more systematically, as well as an understanding of the current state of human knowledge. Especially with the latter, you'd see that you are presenting very simple forms of ideas long since discussed and discarded.
You have the interest, so why not capitalize on it? Practically speaking, it will probably help in your career as well, since it remains a fact that -- Great Recession or not -- college degree holders earn significantly more than those without degrees.
I have other plans, this path is behind me realistically speaking. I'm more into focusing on getting my daughter to go as far as possible instead of sacrificing her in order to do what i wasnt able to do in the past. I know people who try to work , restart studies, while taking care of offpsrings and fail at one or all of the endeavours. Some are succesful, very rare, some kill themselves, some abandon family, many couples implode, some focus on family and abandon their "dreams" etc calculating it's the best to do in the interest of the "group", family.
Doesnt mean i dont enjoy developing what im naturally good at on the side, but at some point in life you have to know when it's too late. Just like everyone else i have regrets but just like everyone i try to do the best with what is left. Some people cant accept it tho.
To be honest it's reading the Bible that got me into seeing things that way; take care of family instead of focusing only on yourself, raised as an atheist and abandoned by my father, i was more prone to leave , pretend i could have done this and that while ruining women and potential offspring with them. I could also have been succesful at doing it, who knows, but fact is I dont feel like i have the moral, mental strenght/fortitude to do it. You have to know realistically what you re capable of, especially when people need you to insure their own survival. Again too many coworkers i saw who failed thinking they could do it all. The most safe path was to stick to my family instead. My own father abandoned us only to end jobless and lonely, while pretending at the time he abandoned us that we prevented him from "fully fulfil himself". He kept doing the same crap my mother was sick of and never got anywhere. I could have done the same, but reading the Bible and listening to my mother instead of the few things my father told me, i "chose" to stick with my own family, better it and myself the best i could following the Bible. Many men do the same, many others dont.
When a path is dead end, well, you try to find another one and to develop it. That's what every life form does. That's what roots, water, plants, animals, do.
Here is an experience i made one day. There was an insect ( woodlouse) that accidentaly fell into an empty cereal bowl. The bowl had milk stains inside .
I just sat there and looked at the whole thing.
I observed the insect i noticed that it was trying to get out of the bowl. This little insignificant life form, was doing always the same thing; trying to escalate the slipery, smooth sides of the bowl. It wanted to go out, look for food, get back to its group, shelter. But it was trapped.
I looked at it for a whole afternoon. It struck me that, it was doing exactly the same thing I as an human was trying to do daily. Find solution, find paths, safety, an exit. So my life could go on. As basic and insignificant this small life form looked, it was doing exactly, the same thing, that I , a "more developed, proud, egocentrical and self aware" human was doing. At this moment i realized the true nature of my self, and others. I also wondered if there was a "superior" lifeform looking at me, at us, struggling, from above.
It was "fascinating" cause i never took the time to see things that way, to take the time to see things that way. I have seen woodlouses all my life but never understood what i understood at this moment.
The litle woodlouse was following constantly the same routine that i was able to write on paper; it stayed motionless for some time (resting, recuperating) then it used its antenna to slowly check the sides, find microscopic tears , a grip, a hold in the slipery side. When it found a dried milk stain that could act as a grip, a ladder, to get out of the bowl, it escalated it but it kept falling several times reaching different highs, at the bottom of the bowl . Two or three time it was only some millimeters away from the border of the bowl. And it fell again, on its back, with its legs kicking into the air. It started to take more time for it to get back on its feet, rest, and do the whole routine over and over again.
Then it would stay immobile again, recuperating, resting, often for the same amount of time, like one or two minutes. Then, it got out of its "sleep" over and over again and checking, escalating the bowl internal surface , falling, resting, and so on.
It kept trying for hours. And it never, ever, did work, it never found a path , a succession of enough tears in the milk stain, to get out of the bowl.
I realized that many humans, many animals, since "life" started on earth died that way, many are dying that way, and many will. I realized we were just doing the same daily as humans, except we are capable of seeing it from above, from the outside, "thank" to our more developed pre frontal lobes, where lies our more advanced "consciousness". I realized that as "advanced", as better equipped we are to face adversity, emptiness, death, we re still doing the exact same thing than this woodlouse, we re just animals.
In the evening it was having more and longer resting periods where it stayed immobile. I concluded its energy was depleting, it needed to eat. But it wasnt able to get out of the bowl by itself. It would die of a certain death. It was unadapted to face the "challenge".
I helped it get out and it stayed there on the floor for a while not moving, too tired, then slowly escaped into the wall. It probably got there, found his group.s members, ate, fucked, then fell asleep. Maybe a stronger, bigger, faster, healthier predator or mate killed him for some reasons because he was too weak after the whole struggle to get out of the bowl. I dont know. I just learned that day that we are somewhat insignificant, even if we re designed by evolution to believe our shit doesnt stink.
