I've been fencing since I was in 8th grade. I first got interested (actually, even heard of the sport in the first place) when my mom heard from the mother of one of my good elementary school friends. It turned out that he was fencing at the site of the former Helm's bread factory right down the street from our school. He was doing quite well, it turned out. Of course, being the type of people that they are (make what you will of that), the mother took the opportunity to mention the fact that her son was doing quite well because of his higher-than-average intelligence. But anyway...

Then, when I was in 8th grade, I heard from my mom that some people were teaching fencing in the cafeteria of the Piedmont Middle School (which I was not attending). It seemed like a good opportunity, so I went. It was cool at first, and the instructors taught us footwork, basic blade manipulation, and so on. But they seemed most interested in getting us to spar, which was pretty boring when you don't have basic tactics down (like, for instance "threaten when your opponent invites," or "remove a threat before threatening," basic stuff like that which seems obvious but really does need to be drilled in). It was rather unfulfilling, so I left after several months. But it didn't turn me off to fencing entirely.

When I started 9th grade, I found out about this other location that taught fencing, and it was actually a fencing club instead of a few guys (and girls) running out of a middle school cafeteria. It was called Pacific Fencing Club, and I went down for a bit and saw what it was like. I enrolled in the beginner's adult class (being 14, I just overqualified for the young'uns class). However, about two or three months in, basically I was the only person left who hadn't dropped out (that's pretty low retention rate for the adult beginners class), so my instructor decided to give me three private lessons before putting my up into the intermediate class (then the highest level; now there's a third). And I've been in the club since.