I always liked martial arts. When I was really young, 8 or 9, my mom had a friend who taught jujitsu. I went to a class, but couldn't finish because all they did was roll on the mat the whole time. I use to get bad motion sickness as a kid, and I told them I couldn't do the rolls and they said that is alot of what they do so I never went back.
When I was a teenager, we had a friend who took Muay Thai that everyone really respected. I wanted to be like that and to just learn how to fight, but my parents could not afford the classes.
When I was in my early twenties, my wife's (girlfriend at the time) best friend was kidnapped and beaten up really bad. I told my girlfriend I didn't want this to happen to her so we started taking TaeKwonDo together (she had a friend who taught it). We did that for about a year until we moved away. At this time I started getting into UFC. I loved it. I was really impressed by Royce Gracie. I remember I watched everyone from about 1 - 30. When we moved away, I started taking Muay Thai (ironically it was at the same school I wanted to take it as a kid), but I only stuck with it for about 6 months because it was over an hour drive each way and I just had a new baby.
I really didn't think about martial arts much for 7 years, until 6 months ago. I began watching UFC again (and Pride) and when I saw the TV show Fight Girls and Human Weapon made me wish I never stopped training in Muay Thai. Another reason is about a month ago a friend and myself had a little too much to drink and we started sparring. I ended up giving him a good Muay Thai kick to his thigh (he said it hurt like hell the next day), but he scooped me up and could have slammed me if we wanted to. He has a wrestling background and I realized I could have got my butt kicked if it wasn't my friend because I didn't have any ground experience and wouldn't know what to do if I was taken to the ground.
Last month, I just finished my bachelor's degree which I was pursuing part time, and thought what I wanted to do with my free time. I started looking at martial arts schools again and chose Kajukenbo for it's mix of stand up and ground work (my instructor teaches alot of Judo/Juitsu). I'm loving it, but I'm also going to supplement it with BJJ a few times a month. I just love martial arts for the discipline, history, fitness, and just knowing how to protect oneself (as well as family and friends) if the need ever arises. I just started my son in Kenpo and when my daughter is old enough, I am going to encourage her to go also.
The only problem I have now is my wife says I'm devoting too much time doing martial arts, so I have to cut back going to the dojo to 3 days a week.
Sorry for the long post, but I really enjoyed everyone's response.
-Dru