I'm in a similar boat. I first learned about bitcoin when it was worth about $300-$400 so I was already a bit late, but even if I had obtained 1 bitcoin at that time, I would have made a killing on profit from it now haha.

I also got busy with life and school for years after my first encounter with cryptocurrency until recently when I decided to just go for it. Like you, I'm also in it for the long-term so I'm not super worried about the trend right now. I think it might just be correction seeing as how Ether did jump up dramatically in a short period of time.

I wish I could say I had any idea about how long it'll take for Ether to start trending upwards again, but I believe it will - maybe not as quick as it did the past 1-2 months, but I think it'll be a steadier rise in value. For now, I'd just continue to hold and watch the market trends.