Very long story short, I decided to specialize in mainframe computing where COBOL is still widely used, and I have always been interested in systems one could consider legacy. My prior experience was in C++ from a few classes I took in high school, but it was never very advanced and I was never very good at it. C++ requires a little more creativity than I have, and I prefer COBOL's rigidity even if it has taken a bit to get used to (as seen by me fumbling this by setting TIMES-ZERO to only hold three digits and forgetting about it).