Excellent thread! Love reading all of the different stories and ways people got into hunting. Here's mine:
Grew up in a very small town in Pennsylvania. Hunting was pretty big as schools always had the opening season Monday off for the first day of deer. My Dad took me hunting a couple of times but he wasn't really big into it. I vividly remember driving 5 minutes down the road and walking to our spots in the dark. He would always make himself a thermos of coffee and me a thermos of sweet tea. Don't know why but I always got super cold once that sun had risen. To this day I can still feel the chill of the November air. I think over the 3-4 years of hunting we did, I shot a doe (but didn't recover until day after and unfortunately meat was ruined) and Dad shot a small buck.
One time I remember. I was probably 13 or 14 and my Dad let me walk to the property we sometimes hunted, about 10 minutes down the road. I now have a teenager and can't imagine letting my 13yr old take a .30-06 into the woods alone to hunt! I shot a decent sized buck but never did recover it, even after my Dad came to help me. Also went hunting a couple times with my uncle but no luck. Overall, I never had the experience or spark that interested me like it does now.
Highschool and college I idiotically didn't have anything else on my mind except drinking, partying and girls. Didn't pick up a rifle for probably 10-12yrs. Met the wife in college and moved to Tucson in 2002. Moved to Oregon in 2005 for my job. While in transition, I stayed with someone who was a big time hunter, along with all his friends. THIS is where I got the bug to hunt and fish. Went on a couple of hunting/fishing trips with them and since then, that's all I plan for and around. Took me quite a few years but now the wife loves the outdoors and my boys are really starting to get into it.
Stopped hanging around with that group for a couple different reasons and went my own way on hunting and fishing. I'm 100% self taught. Consider myself a decent fisherman but wish I was a better hunter. I've gotten a couple animals over the years but the learning curve being self taught is steep. Doesn't matter though, as I enjoyed every minute in the woods or on the water.
I now feel sports and/or outdoors activities are absolutely essential to a kid growing up. Doesn't matter if you're any good or not, just that you try hard, put yourself through some suffering, and learn what it means to be self-sufficient. And get the HELL off those dang phones!