Pool has always been a passion of mine
My brother made me watch the Hustler as a kid and i knew this was a game I wanted to play. Pool was not big at all in France in my youth.
Luckily for me one of the best pool hall, if not THE best pool hall in France just happened to be up the street from where i was going to school in my last year there. I set one foot in the door and the rest, as they say, is history.
I say luckily but that is for me. It was very unlucky for my career in academics. I spent every hour I could there and flunked miserably that year (I went back to school 2 years later and got my degree).