I was fortunate to grow up in and time and place where familiarity with nature was easy. A large vacant lot separating our suburban backyards from a dairy pasture was a treasure house of butterflies, "weeds", and other living things.
I majored in biology in college at a place where I could pursue interests as diverse as cecropia moth development, neurobiology, and prairie dog behavior.
While waiting for my turn to go to graduate school I was captured by the joy of teaching something you love to people who want to learn it, and therefore taught K-8 science for 29 years, earning an MS Ed in science education along the way, before returning to the university full time to teach science education methods to MS Ed students preparing to teach K-8 themselves.