Well, about 20 years ago from the day I write these lines, I was in High School (I think that's the right word in english), having huge interests in mathematics and physics. One day, a physicist visited the school and gave a lecture - of course in a simplified way - of what he was doing. It was about Atoms and elementary particles, smashing  particles against each other and analyze the "pieces". From that moment on my interests in physics increased.

Despite that I had huge interests in astronomy since I was a child. From the age of 10 years on, I read books - of course those for children - about the stars, planets, the universe and so on. All that "in theory"; I'm roughly able to point the moon at the sky. ;-)

Finishing High School, I started studying physics. After just three semesters I had to cancel it, because it had very strange effects on me and my mind. A worse day, I wasn't even able to realize, what was going on in the "real" world. After canceling, I never did physics or mathematics again.

Well, and there I am now, crunching Einstein@Home, hoping the be one of the lucky ones who found a pulsar.