During part of the process I realized that I wanted to get feedback on my raw practice sessions - think 30 minutes warming up with C major scales, followed by an hour working on one line of a piece - so I started streaming on Twitch and posting incremental progress videos to YouTube and TikTok (@jcpractices everywhere). That's been an incredible experiment - the "hobbyist classical music practice streamer" space is a niche^5, but my small growing community is so encouraging to keep going.
According to my new teacher (who also streams!), I'm playing at the senior recital level at an average university, or at the 1st year level of a student at conservatory. It feels like such a huge accomplishment as someone who started in the evenings after work at 25. I'll never be a "great player" or make meaningful money from it, but it's one of those hobbies that I plan to pursue for the rest of my life for the sheer enjoyment. I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can get.