It's Never Been a Better Time to Be a Learner

More than ever, the resources for autodidacts are out there and accessible to anyone, but you have to have the wherewithal to take advantage of these opportunities.

Anya Kamenetz: It's never been a better time to be a learner. You have so many resources at your fingertips. You don't have to sit there and say, "Oh gee, I didn't get into Harvard's engineering program."  Guess what, if you want to, you can email the professor and you can go online, you can use open resources to supplement your learning to make things more interesting, more exciting.
You should participate in creative networks, whether that means blogging, whether that means making videos, sharing with people in your community. Begin to share your knowledge and share your learning so that you can start to make inroads into the world that you one day want to join. The doors of that world are open to everyone who has the wherewithal and the ability to try to participate.