Young James Garfield ran away from home at age 16 to pursue his dreams of becoming a sailor, but he never rose above working as a dock worker on the Erie Canal. He returned home to his mother a few weeks later and she talked him into going back to school to get an education. Good thing, too. The world of academics suited him much better. He studied law and mastered several languages.
In fact, Garfield was both multilingual and ambidextrous. To entertain his friends, he would write the answer to a question in Greek with his right and in Latin with his left hand simultaneously.