My best advice to divers joining our groups are to LOVE diving for the things that you know will happen every dive.  The feeling of floating weightlessly through the water NEVER stops being wonderful and amazing to me.  You dont even have to be someplace "tropical" (read: expensive) to have that experience...yes, you can have that in a quarry in Ohio or a river in Spokane.  If you are not amazed by what you see, be amazed by what you feel.