For me as a kid in NY I always loved reptiles (snakes were/are my favorite), my parents would not allow snakes in the house, so I always had others (anoles, turtles and an Iguana) After college I moved to an apartment in NJ with my then future (and now present) wife and we brought my turtles and then had some torts and a veiled Cham. I ran into the same "no snakes" rule from my wife that I've been dealing with my entire life.
A few years later we bought a house and I had my own "pet" room to house all the herps in...it is a room off of my garage and it is heated so it was perfect....I promised that there would be no snakes...blah blah blah...So about a year later, at the White Plains Reptile Show I bought a female CH normal BP...it was my first snake and I was so excited. I had the tub set up at home in the pet room and I brought her home and she lived happily in that tub for almost 8 mos before my wife found out. Everyone knew I had a snake (family/friends/son/wife's family) except her....She would go into the pet room and not see it because it was in its hide....but one time she went in and there was a huge shed skin there..I was busted....after a few weeks on the couch, I explained how I felt about snakes and she agreed to let me follow my dreams.....47 BP's later, an LLC , rodent factory in the garage and a website...my wife has pretty much turned it around....so thats how I started.