I'd like to say I was born with a need to understand how everything worked but, that's simply not the truth. The need had to be cultivated. For the longest time I was pretty happy just knowing that things worked: my calculator helped with homework, my computer played games. I remember when I was very young my father showed me a book on algebra. I had heard about algebra but wasn't much further into math than arithmetic; to me algebra was just some thing the older kids hated. We went over a few of the problems and everything just kind of clicked. It all made sense instantly; it was just a math problem with a blank in it. $1 + $_ $ = 2$ became $1 + x = 2$.
Once I'd realized how simple something as scary sounding as algebra could be I started doubting myself less and would approach learning with more enthusiasm. Over time I found I liked some things ( like kinematic physics ) more than other things ( like chemistry ) but nothing intrigued me as much as programming did.
My first experience with programming was on an open source C++ game. I'd never read code before and just looking at the walls upon walls of text was extremely intimidating. I did what any sane person would do: I ran away from it and wrote connect four in C++. I ventured into python after that because I'd been told it was a better first language but, it didn't come with the challenge of C++. I came back to programming every once in a while throughout the rest of high school. It wasn't until a year or two into college that I finally decided it was what I wanted to do. While taking a course in C++ I was rewarded with a book called "Programming and Problem Solving with C++". I read it front to back and, besides one random ( but very fun ) java class, my fate was sealed.
Since then I've done a fair amount of work in C#: tools and Unity games. C++ is still, by far, my favourite language to work in and all my game related side projects are in that.
I've also played around with web stuff a fair bit. My first site was in python using Django and my second was in Scala using the Play Framework. This time I decided to focus more on content than on creation so I went with the Ghost blogging platform.
I've also since realized that the best part of games programming is often the math and that that little bit of algebra is only the beginning.