I started to roleplay in the yahoo chatrooms, anime/whateverhaveyou, stuff.  I think that was around 10, or 11.  Either way, it was a bunch of crap. XD 
Eventually I wandered from yahoo, to a chatroom styled forum (cause that's how RP was done back in the day) and somehow landed into Gaia where I piddled around for a while.  Decided to leave the RP scene around...15 ... I think? For a variety of reasons...but mostly because I was growing bored with dragons, elves, and long roadtrips.  Instead, I chose to lose myself in books, and wrote solo for a while.    
Then a friend of mine introduced me to the Star Wars books.  I was pretty skeptical at first, because I was never much a fan of sci-fi, and all I really knew about Star Wars was from the movies.  But, I like to try new things at least once, and decided to give it a chance.  The book was 'The Rise of Darth Vader' and I was completely hooked.  Started reading as much as I could, and even got the radio dramas to listen to.  (which are amazing, by the way) 
Eventually, just reading wasn't enough for me, and I found a Starwars/yahoo.com forum, where I got my foot in the door.  Unfortunately the place shut down.  I hopped around for a while, and here I am.  Still loving it.