I was in the same place using Drupal primarily. I found excitement by joining a startup company. Startups typically need to build web apps that are so customi

I was in the same place using Drupal primarily. I found excitement by joining a startup company. Startups typically need to build web apps that are so customized that it doesn't make sense to use a CMS. I found writing code at a lower level really helped me learn a lot more and captivated my interest. No longer was I having to play by the maddening rules of the CMS. Its more challenging but more rewarding and helps you learn whats really going on behind the surface. I would roughly equate coding in drupal to using windows where they try to hide the 'insides' of the application from the developer. You are learning more about the CMS's API and not the underlying processes. Using a lower level framework (rails, django, express) is more like unix where it is more transparent and easier to customize but demands some real understanding. Or just not using a framework at all is nice but can burn a lot of time. Everyone should build their own atleast once, but after that let the frameworks to the boring stuff and stick to coding the fun stuff.