It was indeed an enjoyable read in tandem with the followup post. Some years ago, I was in the 'Pure Land' and in a weird way I was happy that I never 'grew up', by that I meant that the educational system didn't kill my curiosity as it does to most kids, and that I found everything interesting in some way and I was never really bored of things.
I guess I lost that curiosity during the last parts of my thesis and covid lockdowns last year. The thesis and the internship after beat the curiosity out of me simply because doing *good* research was neigh impossible with my limited resources. I remember desperately trying to make progress but when everything takes ages to complete, it is easy to lose interest, and deadlines make everything harder.
I tried to get back to that state of mind, but it can be quite difficult at times.