I'm 20 years old what will make my original post sound a little exaggerated but it's still the truth. I also don't live in the USA which might explain the relative lack of educative books in my libraries (although I don't really know the situation outside of the big cities there). Of course, I'm still at the start of my life but I still feel like I missed a good part of those important formative years. Yet today I'm studying quantum field theory and general relativity so I guess I turned out fine anyway.