At school aged 15 the teachers asked me what I wanted to do. I replied, go to Oxford to study archaeology.
A few days later came the answer that they would help by putting me into interviews and exams for Oxford but that archaeology was out of the question because Oxford required Latin and Ancient Greek as entry subjects--and I had not been learning Greek.
So I did physics which I loved anyway, and got in. This led through to a doctorate and an academic career began.
In my 60s I returned to Oxford to start the long process towards an MSc and a doctorate in archaeology. I am part way there. One more year to finish the M.Sc.
It helps to be interdisciplinary when performing fundamental research, in my case crossing boundaries between science and archaeology. And it helps still more to be a strong atheist when considering archaeological matters as well as scientific ones.