The start

Hi all, Was just curious what made all of you appreciate this fine spirit as much and at what point of your life that was. I (really) got into rum quite recently, less than half ago. Before I would drink the occasional Bacardi/Captain Morgan + Coke, but that's about it. For me it started off as a deliberately picked hobby. In my every day job I'm in IT and even in my spare time I read about IT, etc. So I needed something to take my mind of IT completely. One of my co-workers has a thing for whiskey (not a bad choice since I'm located in Ireland), but rum had always been my spirit of choice. I started with a few cheaper ones, whom I mostly mixed with coke, thought they were alright. Read a few books about rum, tried some better rums (Doorly's XO, Ron Zacapa, Plantation 20th XO, ED 12 to name a few of my personal top rums to date) who I drink straight up or maybe with some ice/a splash of water and really started to enjoy this whole rum thing. Unfortunately rum here in Ireland (and any alcohol for that matter) is quite expensive, so my collection is not growing that fast. However being in my late 20's now, I think I'll still have some years to try many more rums. How about everyone else? Looking forward to your replies. Cheers, Rob