Hobby Progression: Where'd you start?

Hi all! So I've recently been, as someone on iHerp accurately put it, researching my face off about tarantulas. It got me to thinking where I first started in these crazy-obsessive hobbies, and how my attention span drifted off after a while. I wonder if others have experienced this.

From beginning to present:
Parakeets
Bettas (bred once)
Planted Aquaria & FW Fish (bred different species, grew and sold many plants)
Axolotls (raised tons from eggs)
Planted Vivaria &
Salamanders/Newts/Frogs*
Geckos*
Snakes (BPs mostly)*
Tarantulas*

The last four are the most recent, three of those within the last few years (even though I've always loved all manner of reptiles and amphibians, but the obsessive love is recent). And T's? I BLAME YOU ALL. :taz:

I still think about getting back into FW aquaria, but..limited funs do not mean unlimited hobbies! Where did you start, and where are you now? How many different things do you divide your time with..and are you keeping up? I noticed that a LOT of ball python lovers end up with T's..and yet on the flipside, I've gotten almost no response on the topic of T's on my gecko forum. Interesting? :rolleyes:

I started off with a ribbon snake when I was eight years old. Got the whole setup with the snake for 29.99. Funny how I still remember that. Before that I had any frog or lizard I could catch stuck in a jar in my room. 20 years later I have a collection 50+ Ball pythons and I'm not finished yet. But over the years I've owned venemous, large constrictors (15' plus), monitors, colubrids, several lizard species, and one parrot (and it was pure evil). But I do enjoy most animals scaly or not. I hope one day to get back into retics and GTP's and some elapids, but I can't ask my wife to take care of these when I'm out of town so for right now balls and soon we will be adding chameleons, geckos, and possibly some boas.

As a kid growing up in SoFl, If I caught it, it was a pet, even baby gators.
grew up, moved on to college, work,marriage, kids.
as kids got older, they started bringing home "pets" that they had "found", baby rabbits squirrels, snakes etc.
Now the kids have been gone from the nest, I have re-ignited my passion for reptiles :D
I know what you mean about the T's, I plan on only getting 2