I'm sure you've heard that before, and I promise that it's true. Math is universal: a set of rules that do not change upon context or culture. A person with no background at all with mathematics can start exploring math on their own, and will come to find the same patterns and rules. That's where the beauty lies.
It is an obsession; I have spent an absolutely immense amount of time exploring mathematics independently. Why? Well, to research the problem of the factoring of integers (along with many smaller problems on the side).
The question about the factoring of integers is a massively difficult question at the center of many problems in mathematics. It is unsolved. I landed on the problem from a study in music having to do with the harmonic series. The study produced a table which I became obsessed with, and I vigorously began to seek out information on the table and a way to apply the table to something.
...I found the table on Wolfram Alpha: the Lambdoma Matrix. Shortly after, I found the application of it to find perspective in the factoring question. I felt it was my responsibility, as someone inspired and having insight into the question, to dedicatedly zeal after the answers to it.