I started when I was a kid, too. My dad was on the road every so often and went through Iowa and would stop off at Ertl/AMT every now and again. He would bring back a couple of their Star Trek and Star Wars offerings and I would build them up as quick as I could! Also, whenever we'd visit my grandparents they would take me to Ben Franklin to get a model every now and again. I remember building an AMT Falcon with rubber cement. :
Kids...
Anyway, I dropped out of it throughout high school and most of college. I really didn't pick it up again until right after graduation and slowly came back. 5 years ago is when I really got back into it and every year has been more serious than the previous...I now have several masters to my name and my skills are way better than I could have imagined as a kid. There's still a long way to go, though.... 