Tell us your story:
I am a student a Yorktown highschool, to the auther of the book How to think like a computer scientist: Python edition., (Mr Elkner).
I encountered Python back in 1999, but I was happy in Perl, and I was scared off by white space formatting. I didn't really give it a chance again until this summer (2001), and I sat down to do the tutorial. After the tutorial, there was no looking back. I can't believe I ever thought Perl was cool. -- SteveHowell
I encountered Python via JPython at the end of 1998, while looking for a way to script Java components together. I had previously used Perl for rapid prototyping and scripting, but had always been nervous about readability and the ease of shooting oneself in the foot with Perl. Going through the Python and JPython tutorials were a series of "aha" moments for me. Now it is my language of choice when I don't have a client specifying something else. -- WilhelmFitzpatrick
Answering technical questions for customers of book publishing company O'Reilly and Associates, I needed to stay on top of all the technologies on which we published. While my focus was mostly on Perl, O'Reilly Editor in Chief, Frank Willison said I should take a look at Python. He sent me an early draft of Mark Lutz's first edition of Programming Python. I grabbed a copy of Python and started playing. I liked it. I still mostly wrote and maintained Perl code, but enjoyed playing with Python when I could.
In late 1999, I took an editorial position with the O'Reilly Network. ( http://www.onlamp.com/python ) I encouraged them to launch a Python Dev Center. I became the Network's Python Bureau Chief. When I left O'Reilly in 2000, I kept the Bureau Chief position. I continue to write Python News. --StephenFiggins
I have found ZOPE ( http://www.zope.org ) during work on my own object publishing server (in PHP & PostgreSQL). Zope was exact fit for all my needs, so reason for making my own application sever vanished.
After some time I found python is needed to be 'ZOPE guru'. *In 8 hours* I have learned Python and in turn trashed all other programming languages (java, perl, php, c, ...), simply because I LOVE PYTHON (more each day) --David Pravec
I had the good fortune to work at USGS when Jim Fulton, Zope architect extraodinare, was there. He explained to me how perl's assumptions about context are done (by overloading things that probably shouldn't be overloaded (just what I don't recall...)). He recommended python and he likes smalltalk. --Paul Taney
I stumbled across the language while looking for a way to do somthing in Perl. I haven't used Perl since, for anything. I'm going to name my first born Python... maybe. - Andrew Murray
Two years ago, we needed to convert the output of one COTS (commercial off the shelf) application into the input for another COTS app. We could have given the requirements to the computing group, waited 6 months and paid a big bill, or use Lisp that is part of the ICAD design application we use, an overkill for this project, or I could use Perl if I could just avoid the headaches I got while trying to use it.
Then our programming guru, HarryGeorge (who really should be part of this group) showed me Python. After a half day tutorial, taught by Harry, I was able to create the data converter in less than a week. The converter turned into a general purpose tab delimited file (spreadsheet) reader/manipulator/writer that has been used on other projects.
I still write a lot of Lisp applications, but we now use Python to web launch the Lisp apps and anything else we can get away with. -- JeffSandys
I took a brief look at Python in '95, but didn't have a need strong enough to displace any of other languages at the time. Then in 1999 I was writing a lot of Java code for a machine learning/data mining application and wondered if perhaps there was an easier way. The candidates were Lisp, Perl, Tcl, and of course, Python. Python won and its been getting better ever since.
Today I still use C/C++ and Java, but Python is clearly my language of choice. Its simplicity and its expressive power, taken together, is simply amazing!!! -- LarryBugbee
I was looking to write a server using raw sockets. Of course, for beginners, C/C++ was not the best route. I knew perl at the time, so I tried it with that, and had some success. The problem was that the code was so complicated...
So finally I gave Python a try. The code turned out to be simple, useful, and comfortable. After that, I try to do any large, complicated program in Python, and leave text processing type stuff to perl. And C/C++? You'd have to pay me to do that seriously. -- JonathanGardner
I saw the first edition of Programming Python at a bookstore once and flipped through it. Perl was doing all I thought I needed, so I didn't give it much more thought. I think I finally bought a copy of Learning Python in 1999 because I was starting to get annoyed with Perl's infamous line noise syntax. I had just started using references in Perl, and my hand was starting to cramp up from terms like "foreach my $item ( @{ $foo->{bar} } )". "for item in foo.bar" is so much easier to type. I still use Perl quite a bit, but Python (or Ruby) tends to be my first choice for a programming project these days. -- BrianWisti
In 2001 I discovered WikiWiki and especially the MoinMoin wiki engine. I had heard from Python before, but never had a detailed look at it. I fell in love with WikiWiki, MoinMoin and also with Python - it is the most useful and smart language I have seen yet (and I have seen quite some). Coding with Python is fun - I regret not having looked at it earlier. -- ThomasWaldmann
It was early 2002, and I was on disability due to illness. Since I had A LOT of free time on my hands, I decided to pick up a book on Python. A close friend of mine (who I respect above all other developers) had recently become a convert so I figured it was worth looking in to. I really liked what I read, but didn't play around with it much.
After disability, I was assigned to help architect a system which would allow small applications to be written quickly by customers and executed on our embedded devices.... guess what language I chose 
Since then I have become the resident Python developer and 'guru' (which doesn't say much, believe me.) -- DallasMahrt
While searching for a JavaScript Library I found MochiKit, the author said it was Pythonesque. -- VanPeterson