PHP has always been a favorite language of mine. It may not be the fastest, cleanest, or most elegant, but is powerful, easy, and has a huge community of developers that write great tutorials and provide very good documentation.

I started programming in PHP when I needed an alternative to server side includes, which is a pretty odd way to have started, really. Once I got into it though, I realized the power of it. I made quite a few websites and applications using it, and ultimately got my first job in college as a result of that early programming with PHP.

I've stayed a professional PHP developer as time has gone on, and have no regrets. At my latest job, I'm using a PHP framework/CMS called Silverstripe which seems really nice.