Those with financial professions - what made YOU choose Finance?

Ok so, I know that there’s a lot of posts from high school students, but hear me out. I hope this is the right tag.

I realized I wanted to major in finance in April of my junior year in high school (which was a year ago). The main reason for this was my involvement in what I could only describe as a “stock market simulator” when I was 13 on Roblox (no, I’m not kidding). While it wasn’t exactly like the real market, it involved assets with fluctuating values, trends, and varying demand. These assets were worth virtual currency that could be bought with real money. I invested $25 into my account and it ended up being valued at $3000 in just three months. On top of that, I could actually sell my assets for that much money if I wanted (although it was against the terms of service). This experience was incredibly exciting, but it also had a lot of risk and fear. I had to predict whether these virtual items would increase in value or decrease, and when to trade them for other items. There were times when my items would suddenly drop in value, and I would be stuck having to trade them off. I would spend hours on end doing this.

Anyways, because of this, I feel like Asset Management is a field I’d like to pursue as it might be similar to my previous experience, as per the definition, “managing financial assets on behalf of individuals or institutions to maximize value and achieve specific financial goals”. I heard things about investment banking, thought that it could be for me, but I don’t think that field is as specific to the stock market as I thought?? (again, I’m not very knowledgeable). However, the university I’m thinking of applying to (it’s not a target school or known specifically for its business college, but it’s a T60 and very reputable) has a highly selective Wall Street mentorship program that is comprised of sophomores. That means if I want to go through the rounds of interviews for it, which will probably be during my freshman year, I need to figure out why exactly I want to go into finance and/or asset management ASAP.

So far I came down to these reasons:

1. Although asset management/investment banking could be lucrative career paths, I’m mainly interested because I feel like I could really grow intellectually. I have major respect for those who found success in those paths, after all, it’s not easy
2. I think it’ll be fun (call back to the excitement and risk I felt during my participation in that “stock market simulation”)
3. I am genuinely intrigued by the stock market

But another issue. I haven’t participated in the ACTUAL stock market yet. I recently opened an Investopedia Simulator account in hopes I could gain knowledge on investing before spending my actual money (because although I thank Roblox for giving me an interest in finance, it’s not the actual stock market…). I feel like I’m behind, there are already people who know EXACTLY why they want to go into this field and the means to excel, those people are probably in that Wall Street program I mentioned earlier. I want to excel, I know I have the drive to do everything possible to, but I don’t even know basic things like financial terms.

Long story short. I want to hear from other people who are currently within financial careers as to why they chose this path. It’ll give me insight on why I want to, and I’ll reflect on other’s reasons to build or contribute to my own. Any contribution, or advice, helps.

I also realized that this subreddit is likely comprised of older people who have no idea what Roblox is which is kinda embarrassing but I feel like it’s relevant to why I want to go into finance, so hopefully I explained my experience well. Sorry for my rambling.