Engineering
I discovered engineering a bit late in my life. I was aware that it existed, but to be wholly honest, did not know what it really was until after I had started working towards a degree in Mechanical Engineering. It was an eye opener! all the things that I had done with regards to building things could actually have predictable results. My methods before, to try something, see if it worked, then modify it as necessary to make it work or work better could all be reduced to math, to formulas, to theory. AMAZING. Then it became clear that the predictions are all based on something much harder than any math, assumption. With out a starting point, all the math in the world will not get you to the end. All my trial and error was not for naught. It gave me the needed experience to see viable solutions, to understand real world situations, and then to apply the theory and predict more detailed results.