My dad taught me to program in BASIC when I was 10.
Later when I was 13 and really interested in actually creating useful programs I was able to coerce an older friend of mine who was studying IT in college to hand me a copy of the Visual Studio MSDN to learn Visual Basic.
A little over a decade and also a little over 10 programming languages later, google and I have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to learning a new language.
Right off the bat, with honesty based on what I have lived through already, people who are smart and experienced enough to offer mentorship usually find "pupils" who have already reached a certain level on their own. So trying to surround yourself with "the right people" before gaining enough experience to offer insightful feedback to your peers is truly like expecting a venture capitalist to invest in your business when you possess no real business plan to maximize their return over investment.
With that said, keep yourself efficiently informed. Read quick bits of information to maintain a broad image of what's trending in the fields you are interested in. Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn articles are all great places to get just enough to keep yourself up-to-date.
Find what makes you truly passionate. At any given time there will be 20 or 30 emerging technologies which will claim and convince many that they're the next big thing. So instead of trying to bloat-up your resume with every trendy set of acronyms you can find, focus on the few that really resonate with your programming personality. This will increase the quality of the learning you are able to squeeze between (or even during) office hours.
In that same line of thought, keep your peers, and especially your superiors, in the loop of what makes you passionate. Once you find the next big thing which interests you, make a presentation and share the knowledge. This will not only guarantee that you'll place yourself in a spot where opportunities will multiply to work with the tools you like best, but, to make sure you're truly prepared for thorough questioning, it'll also force you to truly sharpen your knowledge and go that extra mile when digging through the docs and teaching yourself.
My dad taught me to program in BASIC when I was 10.
Later when I was 13 and really interested in actually creating useful programs I was able to coerce an older friend of mine who was studying IT in college to hand me a copy of the Visual Studio MSDN to learn Visual Basic.
A little over a decade and also a little over 10 programming languages later, google and I have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to learning a new language.
Ruby has been my love for the past 2 years.
Trixite might be my next one.