Well, you have lived, and done well for yourself, in spite of your homelife, and I take my hat off to you for that. Wow, you spent a lot of dosh on your first binoculars-mine were only about $32 with tax, if I remember; a pair of Bushnell Sport View 8x30's with oblong black vinly case in the late 60's. They took me away from my always fighting parents, and kept me company in the woods a fields, thankfully within walking distance to my home. I bought them at a Herter's store close-by, and by advice I got in Outdoor Life, or Field & Stream about which power to buy. And someday I would be like Jack O'Connor hunting big game in the USA, with a .270 rifle, no doubt! That never happened, though I walked the fields looking for Pheasants for hours and hours! Which have been gone from here for many years now, along with the flocks of Pigeons too!
I did a lot of walking, and looking, and when I wasn't hunting, I was just walking around in those same fields and woods with my binoculars, just to be out of the house and I got used to being a loner, and I liked it. I remember seeing rabbits playing in the clover, with my bins one day, and it was great. I've been that way ever since (OK, I did get married, but all we had were cats), and still find the solace of nature the best way to spend any time in this world, without conflict and noise. I'm pretty touchy about noise and have been since my youth-no surprise there after all the yelling I heard.
But those first binoculars probably helped keep me engaged in nature, in a way not possible before, and that has stuck with me til now, and I am so grateful for being introduced to them, even if it was only from reading about them. Once you see for yourself how great they are, you're hooked! One of man's best inventions, to take you to a different plain of awareness for sure!
I may have been a very different person if my VW bus's engine had not blown up, in 1971 (just had it rebuilt-a 1963 bus), when I was planning a trip around the US after high school. But that floored the attempt to escape, and I had to go to work to make ends meet, (and worked ever since until no one wanted old guys anymore). Getting away never did happen, but I did marry a great girl, that I met in college, and we're still together...and living on this amazing earth with the permission of our cats, for sure.
Black Crow, it seems your drive to get out, and be in nature paid off for you, as your living in it is what many aspire to, though never find it in their own lives. Good for you, and your sentiments and actions to be a naturalist by heart and soul, should make you proud of your convictions and doing it for your preservation. The best medicine that you can get for any money, no doubt! You found a way to survive, and got something irreplacable in return.
I don't think you missed anything in a career, as sometimes that is very overrated, and people get lost in them. You're a survivor, and naturalist and to be congratulated on following your own path. Yes, keep it simple, and keep it yours.