Hold off on academia for now. Don't join until you work out your own identity difficulties. I'm with you. As an introvert, it can be tough to figure out how to

Hold off on academia for now. Don't join until you work out your own identity difficulties. I'm with you. As an introvert, it can be tough to figure out how to build yourself instead of building for someone else. I'd say explore and start small. Are there anchor points in the arts, fitness/sports, ways to try some fun and local courses? Meetups? It is not going to be quick and easy. Don't worry about getting a perfect theory of yourself built right away. You will have to try a bunch of things and see what resonates. Become a self-experimenter and keep a diary that you can do back to monthly to figure out which pathways are better to dig into long-term.