I wish I’d had zero math education after elementary school and had been able to start advanced linguistics, literature, language, anthropology, etc. classes in sixth grade or so instead of wasting so much time on something so worthless to me. Even attending a college instead of sixth grade would’ve been fine. I was more than capable of it.

Any of that was impossible for several reasons: my middle and high schools were fairly bad and there were maybe two other students at most in the whole county who could’ve handled the same material I could’ve. So there was no reason for it to be offered. No money, no market.

I do wonder sometimes, though, how it would’ve been if I’d had better educational opportunities and better teachers, but then that likely would’ve pushed me into academia which for me would’ve been a huge mistake and something I would’ve regretted. It worked out in the end, and not just in a sour grapes way. But I do still wonder if I’d grown up elsewhere what would’ve been different.