With so many example of the reverse, I'm struggling to think of a direct answer to the prompt.

Leaving graduate school (English) at the University of Iowa. I dropped out, was lost, faced an existential crisis (or continued to face the same ongoing existential crisis), then found my first teaching job back in my home state of Florida (which didn't really end said existential crisis; which further makes me wonder why I even bring up the obvious). While enjoing teaching, I finished a masters degree in education three years later.

Coffee, beer, and jeans. The taste of the first two was not quickly appreciated. By high school, I was drinking my coffee black; and by my mid-twenties I was finally able to appreciate beer the way I appreciate wine and liquor. Jeans took about as long as beer. Denim was always an irritating material. I didn't like the way it felt, I didn't like the way it looked. I wore slacks throughout high school and college. Now it is rare that I don't slip into some jeans when I get home from work. Or when I hang out with friends.

As you can tell, I was a party animal in high school and college (no beer and only wore slacks!). (And I won't tell you of all the other things my slacks and I were doing.)

And I wish more than anything that I could say separating from my wife would fit into this category. That it would not just open up the obvious new possibilities, but better possibilities. Or that isolation (I am blessed with friends and strangers whom I see as often as possible, but it does little to help the feeling that returns as soon as I am alone again) and emotional distance (a best friend calls me a zombie; but I am not one) might be acquired tastes. Yes, I wish I could say the separation was a suitable answer to this prompt. I think I would sleep better at night.