One of my favorite things to do when I was really little (3 or 4) was to help my dad with the 75 gallon tank we had set up. My parents had both kept fish off and on for years, and I grew up with stories about my mom's oscars and gouramis and mouthbrooding cichlids. Then when I got older I kept bettas. And when my beloved betta, Dimitri, died after living in a bowl in my room for about a year and a half, I was heartbroken. And it just so happened one of my aunts was in town visiting, and she felt bad for me, and told my mother she was going to take me to the pet store and get me a new betta. By the time we got there she revealed she had other ideas, and I came home with a 10 gallon tank setup. My mom was a bit mad, but of course my aunt managed to talk her into the whole thing. She taught me about cycling the tank and took me to get a couple fish about a week later. I've had at least one tank up and runnning since, with the sole exception of the 2 years of high school I spent living in a dorm and most of my freshman year of college, also in a dorm. By the end of the year I broke down and got the biggest tank the school allowed (a 1.5 gallon, technically half a gallon over the limit) and a betta. Soon followed by a couple bowls as well. Once I got an apartment, MTS came back in full force and I have 3 tanks running and the 1.5 out of use.