I have been programming as a hobby for the past few years now (most of high school and 1 year in cs in college) and although I've came to the conclusion that a career in CS isn't for me I switched over to math (which pairs what I love about programming with my interest in physical sciences) but I miss writing code.

Recently I've had an interest in low-level programming. Understanding how compilers work, learning some basics of assembly language and trying to get out of my comfort zone. The problem is that since I've been out of the CS programs, I'm not faced with much opportunities to write code. I do intend to take a few CS classes in college (a lot of CS stuff is opened to math majors) but that won't come for until next year.

So I ask: What are the steps to take in order to keep improving as a programmer once you're passed the basic steps? How do you find projects to keep you going? Beside my newly discovered interest in assembly language, I've been writing code in C and have been interested in FOSS. Thanks!