My Genealogy Beginnings

I am a 27-year-old accountant by day and avid genealogist by night (though for the last two months, my new obsessions with downloading music on the iPod I got for Christmas and my new Netflix subscription is taking away from my genealogy time). I've been studying my family history really since I was about 6 years old and first learned how to read and write. I can remember writing down every single one of my 24 first cousins' names on my mom's side and then asking my maternal grandmother for their birth dates, which I would write next to their names. I did this just about over and over when I visited my grandmother, therefore remembering all full names and birth dates by the time I was 7 years old or so. My grandmother would be so proud and since most of my cousins, aunts, and uncles lived in Michigan, she would bring one of my sheets up there to show off to everyone when she visited in the summers. Fast forward about 6 years to when I was about 12 years old. I was a little rebellious, and my paternal grandmother (my other grandmother) could tell I needed a hobby to keep me interested in something. I was always asking her questions about her parents and grandparents, so she suggested we start a project together researching our family history. I believe this was the summer after 6th grade, or maybe the summer after 7th grade, 1993 or 1994. We took a trip to the local genealogy library in Lake Charles, Louisiana, when they had a beginner's workshop, and the rest is history. And by the way, if anyone is curious why I didn't also make lists of my paternal first cousins, it's mostly because there are only four of them, so it was easy enough to keep that information in my head. Don't worry...I now have that info stored in my genealogy management software, Legacy Family Tree.