When Did The Dream Begin?

After talking with one of my Twitter friends about when we knew that writing was something we had to do, I decided it would be a fun topic to bring up here as a question for all of you.

So...

When did you know/decide you were going to write books? It's probably unnecessary for me to say this, us all being writers at heart and all, but be descriptive! Tell us about the how and the why, as well as the when. Usually those three questions are all intertwined, but I figure that it bears mentioning just in case.

For me it was fifth grade. We had a Geography teacher that subbed in to teach English in my middle school. If I remember right he actually taught in that capacity all that year. Anyway, it was nearing Christmas vacation when he asked us to write a short story; just some little piece of creative writing. Can't remember if there was an overall point beyond that, but I chose to write my story from the point of view of a pine tree watching a family walking about a hillside in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Of course the fact that it was told from the tree's point of view wasn't apparent until the ax started swinging. It was a melancholy story--bittersweet, but not exactly dark. At any rate, I felt... not quite in the classroom when I wrote it; almost as if I was there on the hillside. Not the tree, not the family--just another observer. That was my first experience with "the zone" we all get in at times.

I was excited about the feeling I had experienced, and I was proud of the piece, and I was dying to hear what the teacher would say. When I handed it in I didn't say a word, I just waited. The next day he came in and pulled me aside when the class ended and told me that he thought it was incredible. I'll never forget the look on his face. He really did look amazed that a child in fifth grade had produced that story. I nearly cried and laughed out loud at the same time. I had never felt good at anything before then. He told me that he would speak with my mother, and true to his word, he called her in to the school and told her right there in front of me, "You're son has a gift. He needs to be a writer."

So from that day on I've wanted to write fiction. I wanted to tell stories that would bring people to "the zone" with me.

That's my story. What's yours?