Not sure if I qualify, but just let me tell you my story.
I grew up in a little village close to EHKD, Naval Airbase De Kooy, in Den Helder, The Netherlands.
I must have been around six years old when I became fascinated by the many Westland Lynx helicopter our Navy had back then, that flew past.
Also civil operated machines were there, S76 and occasionally a S61N.
As my passion developed I started to read about helicopters, a lot!
Eventually this lead to flying gliders when I was 14 years old and later on radio controlled helicopters.
The latter made a big chance and after finishing a Bachelor degree in Aviation Engineering, I now find joy in commercial flying Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS officially, or just drones
) and I have even qualified as an Instructor recently.
Although most of the drones nowadays are Multirotor aircraft instead of Single Main Rotor, they are still categorized as Rotorcraft, as they are, and I teach about Translational Lift and Vortex Ring State in Aircraft Performance, while using some examples related to full scale Single Main Rotor machines.
Once or twice a year, I treat myself with a ride in a full scale machine as a good friend of mine is an Instructor for Robbies and Cabri G2.
So that's my story, let me know if this is good enough for you.
Regards from the Netherlands,
Tim