Whichever language you choose, I recommend going to Stack Overflow, clicking the tag for your language, and sorting the resulting list of questions by number of votes. This will give you a concentrated collection of very useful practical knowledge about that language, nicely arranged in a Q&A format. Here it is for C++:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/c%2B%2B?sort=votes&pagesize=15
and here it is for Python:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/python?sort=votes&pagesize=15
I've been reading a few C++ questions per day over my morning cuppa for the last few years, and the difference this has made has been fantastic. You learn about pitfalls you had no idea existed, tips and tricks which can be of enormous benefit, and fun and interesting quirks and corners of the language - which can help keep you interested and enthusiastic. You'll also find the community is very friendly and helpful, which I'm sure will provide some much-needed encouragement. Good luck to you, mate.
"Facebook won't collect any of the personal information with which it interacts."
"Whoo-ee," said Crowley. "Where have you been?"
It's worth pointing out that millions of people watched some of the least interesting humans on the planet do nothing more than share a house for a few months, a dozen at a time, for over a decade. At one point, the UK devoted an entire TV channel to nothing else, even while everyone in the house was asleep - with a second channel showing exactly the same thing but delayed by an hour. You know, in case anyone missed any of the really good bits, like snoring.
I'm excited to think we can go to Mars, but at the same time, I'm a little depressed that people will watch every minute of it for decades.
Hackers of the world, unite!