I've gone through many phases in life. I was brought up as a young earth creationist, but left that behind in the 1980's.

Then there was my Christian searching phase, in which I looked around for a "good church" that was able to integrate science and religious belief.

After that was my agnostic phase, which quickly turned into an atheist phase.

Then I started reading philosophy. I met with a mentor for a while, then looked into it on my own (although I know a few professional philosophers who are college professors). Now I'm going through a Stoicism phase, while also reading about Existentialism. I've also started reading Plato's dialogues.

I've had a real interest in philosophy for about 2 years. In that time, I've been taking MOOCs (on Kierkegaard, the history of Greek mythology- we covered Homer, Hesoid, Virgil and Ovid, a class on Plato's dialogues, and maybe one or two others that slip my mind right now).