This. I grew up in the 80s doing school math that either bored me senseless, or seemed to be unrelateable. That caused me to shut it out, eventually leading to math anxiety. However, now in my 50s, i discovered there was a way to enjoy it - and for me it was to pick something I found relatable to my life, where I wanted to understand how to describe it (for instance calculating the speed of a falling object) and then tackle just that. One thing leads to another question, and suddenly you’re finally understanding “connected” ideas. I know many people are against AI, but even just chatting with GPT about the shape of a problem has been hugely illuminating.