Hey Jer,
If you can remember back to highfield park on our induction course, I reckon only a handful of us had a real interest in aviation. I know it helped me, as I didn't view the college as work, and I still don't view what I do now as work.
But then of course you learn so much more when you instruct an ab-initio trainee for the first time and they ask you how you tell the difference between an A320 and a 737. I don't know, they're just different! I don't count the overwing emergency exits or look at the angle at which the tail tapers off!