Stages of intellectual life

 These are my stages, but yours could vary.  For example, maybe the real intellectual stuff happened only beginning in college.  

1. The first stage is an intense and focussed curiosity, directed toward particular things.  For me, this began around 8 when I became very interested in history.  After a while, I switched my interest to mythology, then to poetry.  I was also questioning the religion I was brought up in, etc...  I was a voracious reader. I was trying to become a poet.  

2. In college, my main focus was language learning. I learned Latin, Greek, bettered my French, a smattering of German, maybe a year? I put some effort into my own poetry, but got bigger rewards for being a scholar. I became fluent in Spanish.  I enjoyed taking classes in many subjects.  

3.  Grad school was a bit of let down. Stanford professors were not always great, or superior to what I had experienced at a state school not devoted particularly to the humanities. I didn't appreciate the political atmosphere.  Now I devoted myself to being "brilliant" in scholarship. Writing the dissertation was a bit slow and painful. It was extremely "brilliant" but in a way I don't relate to now as much.  

4.  Assistant professor: I didn't like the politics of it.  I didn't like the mediocrity of my field.  I wrote another book quickly and got tenure at Ohio State. This second book remains the second most cited of my publications, after the first Lorca book.  

5. Early Associate, at Kansas.  Personally unhappy. I had a lot of projects that did not come to fruition. It took me until 2009 to publish a project I had been doing since around 96.  

6. Late Associate. I hit a gold mine with the first Lorca book, also published in 2009.  My scholarship had some depth to it, not merely "brilliance." Two books came out in 2009, I was promoted and won a major research award.   

7. Early full. Got divorced; puttered around endlessly with the second Lorca book, which appeared in 2018.  

8.  Since 2018.  Puttering away endlessly at the Lorca and music book.  I feel my scholarship has depth, but is slow to appear.  Still "brilliant"?