Retiring reality; the honeymoon feeling of an immersion into new sights and smells eventually wears off.  

I did. or at the very least apply for a job with a contractor) The only way to know if something's a "Great Deal" is by immersing yourself with things you know investors learned and to run numbers like they do. 

I still enjoy myself though when not completely immersed in RE.

I think your plan of immersing yourself in education and becoming a buy and hold investor is very sound.

I am also a real estate newbie, but I have just discovered the power of real estate investing and have been trying to immerse myself in it since hearing about it for the first time only a couple of weeks ago.

On the other, you have James Wise, fireplug physique, glasses, snapback, big beard, T-shirt, ill-fitting sweatshirt, massive headphones, scratchy snarl of a voice, immersed in the minutiae of urban real estate investing and the savagery of low-income rental property management.But the guy the camera loves is demonstrably as crooked as a dog's hind leg, his wife is in it with him up to the eyeballs, and the more you poke around in their business the more it smells.

It seems like becoming a real estate agent will be something I need to give it my all and immerse myself in it 100%.

You really need to immerse yourself and learn all you can.

I've been deeply immersed in researching real estate investments since I recently had a business sale that resulted in substantial capital gains.

Please note that the statutes, definitions and legal principles relevant to abandoned real estate and adverse possession can be counter-intuitive to persons who are not immersed in those subjects.