When I was kid, I was into astronomy. I remember watching Cosmos, and having it on VHS, and had a poster of the planetary orbits up in my bedroom. When I was about 12 or so I got my first telescope. I looked at Jupiter and its moons and projected the sun onto a plate to see sunspots. When Halley's comet came by my father took me out somewhere dark (we lived near Chicago) to try to see it, but we couldn't find it.

Through high school I wasn't as much into it, though I was good at math and science. In my final year of high school I got intrigued by Eastern philosophy, and my attention was drawn away from science a bit. When I went to college, I was undeclared. I took a lot of Asian studies classes, but did take an intro level astronomy class. Seeing Saturn for the first time through a good telescope was life-altering! It looked like a cardboard cutout, but it was real. After struggling with it a bit, I decided to major in astronomy or physics instead of Asian studies. I ended up getting my B.S. in Physics, but took a few astronomy classes too. My senior research project was related to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet crash with Jupiter.

I then went to grad school to get a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. A mentor of mine from my last year of undergrad suggested I get some "hands-on", i.e., instrumentation, experience in grad school if I wanted a better chance of getting a job, and so I ended up working on sounding rocket experiments -- we did far-ultraviolet spectroscopy. Although I started out my grad school career interested in planetary science, I ended up studying dust and molecules in the interstellar medium.

Since finishing I have continued being involved in both astronomical instrumentation and ISM work. Though I never really became a good 'amateur' astronomer. When someone asked me about the stars or constellations I'd always say "I'm a professional astronomer, I know nothing about the sky." Hehe...

Being a professional certainly has its moments. Launching rockets in grad school was awesome, going to remote places to visit and work on telescopes (including South Africa), and going to the Cape to see the Shuttle up close. But, it's still a job, so there's also a lot of grind and grunt, red tape and busy work.

Maybe too much info there...