i had flash 5 when i first tried, but i couldnt get the hang of animating at all, so i gave up
then a few months after flash mx came out, i got trial of that and started trying to animate and didn't do so well and started learning AS making a little game after a few weeks of having to click on an MSN butterfly moving along a motion path :P
then a year later i made my AS2 3D engine with full polygonal clipping and navigatable camera with flat shading and back face culling.
and so it goes on, here i am after 4 and a half years