I got hooked on orchids very casually.
I've actually been growing houseplants for a long time. I had successes and disappointments with them, and in a way I was experimenting to see what grew in my home and what didn't.
I found my first orchid purely by accident. I went to go buy some poinsettias for Christmas at a local hardware store, and as I was looking around, I noticed they had a bunch of moribund or unwanted orchids on the discount rack. I'll admit that I used to be skeptical about orchids, and I was one of the many people who thought they were finicky divas who could only be grown by experts. I took home my Burana Stripe Dendrobium, and I didn't expect much from it because the canes were severely dessicated, and most of the leaves were gone (it was still the healthiest plant I could find). I took it home, hoping to bring it back to life.
Boy, was I in for a surprise. Not only did the plant perk up and grow, but it actually bloomed the same year! I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw the flower spike pushing out of the cane; the label didn't indicate what color the plant's flowers were, so I waited in anticipation. When they opened up, they revealed themselves to be white with hot magenta stripes. I got six flowers on the spike that year, and I'm sure the plant could have put out more flowers and spikes if it had been healthier.
With the success of my first orchid, I decided to go back to the store and buy another one. I got a Miltonidium Hawaiian Sunset that time. It actually put out three spikes a few weeks after I bought it. It was an interesting plant, to say the least; the flowers smelled weird. Unfortunately, the plant died shortly after flowering (It didn't like the growing conditions I had).
I've added more plants to my collection since then. After the Miltonidium, I bought an intergeneric Brassia seedling, then a Vanda Seedling, then a Zygoneria, my cattleya, two Angraecums, my Rhynchostylis, and then my Vanda sanderiana. Unfortunately, my Zygo died of Black rot, and my two angraecums didn't fare well (must have been a pathogen).
My beloved Dendrobium is still growing and blooming to this day, as are the rest of my plants. My Brassia actually set out its very first flower spike only a few months ago. Pretty much all of my plants have bloomed, except the young vanda.
My most recent addition is another Vanda seedling. It's supposed to have lavender-blue flowers, and is about two or three years away from blooming. I plan to add many more plants to my collection, and hopefully replace the ones that have perished.
Needless to say, the poinsettias I bought all those years back have long since perished.
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