Welcome to Gaia! ::

I live in Texas, and hardly any of the schools have Japanese programs. If I really wanted to take Japanese, I would have to go to a liberal arts school and probably major in something like international buisness. However, that isn't what I want to do with my life. I want to study mechanical engineering and physics.

Potentially, I could teach myeslf; but it's easier said than done. In fact, I think only a small percentage of the world truly has the ability to sit down and teach themselves anything. It's just too easy to put it off or let other things get in the way. Also, it's better to have a professional teach you.

I'm sure there are options for me that I havn't thought of, and I am doing my best to research options. For what it's worth, though, what do you guys suggest?

You might look into online classes? Some of them are structured enough (ie: regular meeting times, assignments with fixed due-dates, etc) that you might be forced to keep up.