I just moved to the Monterey peninsula, a new-to-me and fascinating ecosystem network. My long fascination with nature started early. When I was in high school, I took a field biology course which I repeated (by choice) twice more--unheard of at the time (luckily, I had a couple of other nature nerds who joined me on this trailblaze). My professional path had not included pursuing biology and the sciences, but I've maintained my lifelong casual curiosity of the natural world. I heard an interview with the authors of the "California Naturalist Handbook" during which they talked about the "ologies" and "eulogists" and suggested naturalists, while drawing on all these disciplines for their knowledge base, are finding and inspiring other paths into the natural world. I first completed the CA Naturalist certification through the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods in 2014.
My musings are at https://naturalmusing.org/