I'm 19. I have been playing for 12 years on total. It all strated because of my mother who thought that it is important a person to have some musical culture and that's why she signed me for guitar lessons. At first she'd wanted me to play violin but some pedagogues told her that I was too old(I was 7 then) and she decided to sign me for classical guitar. The first seven years of my playing were anything but serious -- It was as a kind of duty, like going to school, and to other lessons, so I did not advanced as much as I could have. THings changed when I went in high-school, I got into GN'R and Metallica and Maiden and similar hard and heavy stuff and I suddenly got very passionate and started practicing a lot more. I still play quite a lot, whenever I have time and I thank God that my mom did not signed me to play violin cus now I would have been a totally different person. :)