My mom was kinda paranoid about me liking knives at an early age, as I was fascinated by McGyver and his magical Vic (even got into trouble when I tried to steal a vic knock off at a Walgreens when I was like 6-7 yo), so when I in my early teens went out exploring with my friends to the old abandoned sugar cane plantations of Toa Baja, I had an old Ontario kitchen knife within a cardboard and tape sheath, hidden at the house and snuck out when going out on adventures, whose uses ranged from peeling and slicing mangoes and grapefruits to throwing, cutting rope, and a general feeling of being a grown up. For some reason, we Puerto Ricans as a whole, tend to view knives as weapons, but to me it was always a tool.
Years later in college, as I was an agriculture student, we all carried knives when going out to the farms, and I got into the habit of always having one on me. The knives of that era ranged from the useful to the ridiculous, with the common denominator of being cheap. Then college was done, started to work, and in 2001 when I started where I'm at right now, the first work tools handed to me were a flashlight and a Gerber Gator, which I still keep. From there, there has been an ever growing pile of sharpened steel
First Becker was a 9 bought around 2010 I think, which has been slightly modded, resides in a kydex and leather sheath, and is 8 feet away from me sitting in an office drawer, as it is part of the work rotation.