To skip past the uninteresting parts: I would just say I got into art personally because it allowed me to build worlds and escape, provided an identity that had clear boundaries and goals, and because it was way to build something productive from all the weird ideas I was preoccupied with.
My professional development as an artist came from watching other people do cool things with their lives that I hadn’t even thought of. Some of them were comics artists, some book illustrators, some involved with animation and movies, and the rest were gallery artists who got to think and express in ways that all those other people never even touched. I thought maybe a single person could do all of those things. As a professional I have always followed and been truly naive about how to progress along a chosen path toward a career goal. So, I just keep fighting forward along whatever path presents itself or trying things that may or may not work for me until I find one that will. None of that has been planned or structured and most of my attempts at this career or another have not worked out. I am still in some clumsy process of becoming whatever I will or will not end up being professionally. Most people probably feel that way, but I think I have a lot of people beat for incompetence and lack of insight.
That said, I have had a wide variety of experiences and adventures that I do not always regret. I would be willing to trade some of them for genuine success, but I am working with a set of tools that are only able to build certain things. Determination and inspiration are two of those tools and I hope they continue to make things happen – whatever that looks like in the future.