I'm not really sure exactly how or when I first got interested in Astronomy. As far as I can recall, I've 'always' been interested.
I do remember writing a report on Jupiter when I was in the 5th grade (9-10 years old), using the just published Our Universe from National Geographic. Along with the book came a kit that included a) a put-together cardboard model of a Newtonian telescope which also served as a slide viewer for several b) slide strips, c) a flimsy square record that had sounds of Jupiter (from Voyager), and d) a planisphere. For years that little black and silver cardboard model of a telescope sat on my bookcase. Somewhere I still have that model and kit! The book is well-worn and actually falling apart from use.

In 1983-84 my parents tried to get me some sort of telescope from Edmund Scientific. We got the tripod but after nearly a year still hadn't received the scope. They eventually canceled the order and we went to a local camera shop that was also a Celestron dealer. We jumped right in and got a Celestron 8" SCT - black tube and great optics. At the time I was only about 14 and very petite. The telescope was almost bigger than I was. So my dad would set up the telescope, find stuff, and then let me look. Well, I let him do that for a while, but then I insisted that although he could help with the set up, I wanted to do the finding! And from the start, I kept a logbook of my observations. Those first entries were brief paragraphs. Later logbooks incorporated stuff I had learned in science classes about keeping scientific journals.

Some of my most memorable observations:

•  For two or three weeks I'd get up every morning during the late summer and try to find the Andromeda Galaxy with binoculars. I remember how elated I was when I finally found M31 and how irritated I was because it turned out to be such a simple starhop!
• There was a partial solar eclipse visible in the spring of '8? from Columbia, SC. My parents let me stay home from school to watch it. My dad had brought home some welder's glass and sheets of mylar. I also put tiny holes in a poster board for projection. I sat outside on the driveway and sketched the tiny crescents on the paper and looked through the welders glass and mylar filter.
• Those were some cold nights (although I've observed in colder weather since!) trying to find and see Comet Halley. Dad and I made sketches and that's the only way we knew that we had actually seen it. As a comet it wasn't impressive, but we did see Comet Halley!!
• In more recent times, I've seen:  numerous lunar and solar eclipses, including 1999's Total Solar Eclipse in Hungary; several faint comets, as well as Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp; asteroids; grazing lunar occultations; satellites; Iridium flares; and shuttle launches, all while teaching, outreaching, or observing with my club or alone (on very rare occasions).

In 11th grade for English class, we had to write a sonnet since we were learning about them at the time. Mine was a biography of my future self. It's a little spooky how predictive it turned out to be. I spent my senior year in Germany as an exchange student and effectively 'took off' a year from Astronomy. When I got back, I went off to college at the University of South Carolina (Columbia). My sophomore year I signed up for one of the two astronomy programs offered at USC — one was self-paced and the other was through the Honors College, but both were geared for non-science majors. I took the Honors class because it had regularly scheduled labs at the university’s Melton Memorial Observatory.

Early in the semester, after it became apparent to the TA and observatory assistants that I knew some astronomy, I began working at the observatory as a volunteer on their Public Night and assisting with the other Honors lab as well as with self-paced labs and group programs. In January 1990, I was formally hired as an undergraduate TA. In 1992, I finished my BS in Physics. In 1995 I finished my MS in Physics. By then I was 'boss' at the observatory. Along the way, I had fulfilled some of my sonnet prophecies! During those years I also became a fairly active member of the Midlands Astronomy Club (MAC). I served as secretary, treasurer, VP Membership, and even President.

I left the Observatory, MAC, and Columbia in 1999 and moved to Alexandria to be with my (at that time) future husband. After being 'out of it' for several months (mostly because of weather and family obligations), I'm finally getting back into observing and participating in a club. I also finally found an astronomy related job with the University of Maryland (but that's another story!).
So that's how I got into Astronomy!