You should really not worry about how good you can still become.

The important part is whether you enjoy it. If it does, keep on enjoying it. If it doesn't, stop right away.

There's no obligation to reach any specific goal. If you accidentally manage to be a top-tier tournament champion, great. If not, no big loss. The probability of becoming top-tier is pretty low even among people who start out as small children. Unless you think we have hundreds of thousands of top-tier tournament champions...

I've even met (and lost badly to) people who didn't cross shodan until they had been retired for over a year. They were quite happy to play go, and that's what your potential profit is all about.

I do enjoy the journey of learning Go, but I just wanted to see what others opinion about age was, the guy at the go salon didn't even offer to teach me just told me to get another hobby which was pretty discouraging.

I'd say get another go salon. Where was this?

_________________
Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

I joined a go club instead

In order to make it to pro, one has to be very talented, dedicated and start at a young age.
Today it is extremely unlikely to be competitive at pro level, starting in your twenties. It would require extraordinary talent & dedication and even luck.

However, I believe it is possible for anyone with average intelligence to become a dan player with some dedication, and for anyone with above average reasoning capacity to become something between 4d and 5d but with a lot of dedication.

Within dedication I also assume that you are willing to do the right thing and not the trivial enjoyable thing. For example, writing about Go on L19 or elsewhere on average loses 2 stones in strength.

Didn't even want to teach ...

That sort of short-sightedness is enormously aggravating.

You're better off without someone like that. Good to know you found somewhere else!

Thanks, this explains why I feel like a TDK so often (assuming that it adds up)

_________________
“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?