During my studies and shortly after my graduation, I had been such a person as well in approaching the matter mainly from my "intellectual" and academic point of view as I was lacking life experience and special living experience in China. These days, I am using my "knowledge" but relate them to my practical experience to see whether I am right or wrong about it.

I think I'm following that path as well, going from idealizing everything to understanding that the world doesn't just run with how you want to see things and you need to stop projecting your own positivity (just egocentricity, really) and look at what goes on beyond yourself. It's at this crucial point where many individuals choose to sell out and pretend the bad things don't exist or will minimize them as much as possible. I choose to take the more painful route of understanding why things are the way they are, and why we as humans still can become good people despite all of that.

Like what another teacher told me recently, in the west there is a saying, "If you're not a liberal by 20, you have no soul. But if you're not a conservative by 30, you have no brain!" Amen to that, haha.