Hello. I need advice on my future.

Hello. I need help with my current situation regarding mountaineering and my future in it.

To start this off I would like to give a little background of myself as it is very relevant to the reason for this post. I grew up in small(ish) town Missouri where I was NEVER exposed to anything mountaineering, and never understood it. I spent most of my teenage years doing stupid shit (drugs) and was pretty depressed the entirety of it and never really felt like I belonged anywhere. Just felt like I hadn't ever found my place yet ya know?

After finally getting sober, I got bored, and voiced this to my parents constantly. My parents are awesome, they took my on 2 trips as an accomplishment for getting sober, which I am beyond thankful for. (i love them so much). The two places were Lake Tekapo, New Zealand, and Colorado Springs. I bet you can see where this is going, we went on plenty of hikes and spent the entire time outside in the mountains. I fell in love. It was the only thing that came even close to the emptiness I felt from having a high adrenaline drug past. The more I think about it, the more ive always wanted to do these things, but my poor past decisions got in the way.

Fast forward two years (now) I have been training is a much as possible and have pick up rock climbing and REALLY want to take the next step. I have been researching mountaineering schools and am confused on what my next step should be. The schools are quite expensive, but it doesn't really matter to me I am way happier to cough up the money for school. The second problem is I am SO far from anything mountaineering in Missouri. There is nothing less than ~12 hours away from me. I want to take the next step but am unaware on what to do.

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Hope this gives enough info about the situation im in, any and all feedback is appreciated.

Thank you

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