I remember going down the White River in Indiana with my Dad a few times in a borrowed canoe, seeing Great Blue Herons flying overhead. 
When I was in college, I took a canoe class.  I learned the basic strokes, braces, 2 canoe and self rescue, etc.  I then proceeded to use those skills in a few Fraternity canoe trips down Sugar Creek in Indiana, and also a few family canoe trips on the same waterway. 
Nearly 30 years later, at age 49, circumstances came together, and I decided I wanted to do a wilderness trip in the Boundary Waters.  I called Piragis, and they set me up for my first trip, solo, entering Stuart River.  About 8 hours later, I had learned how to portage, how to paddle, and how to get over and around the biggest beaver dams I had ever seen.  :o
I wasn't real efficient, but I got better as the week passed.  I learned that I didn't like using a kayak paddle, even when Lac LaCroix had to be crossed into the wind.  On my last day, I learned how to paddle upstream and over beaver dams!  (Moose River)  I also learned how great other paddlers are when 2 guys who had dropped their first load at the entry, carried my packs for me on my portage out to my truck.

Since then I have bought all the gear, from stoves to packs to hammock and quilts.  I even found a used Magic for sale in Ohio after looking for 9 months.  I have read about paddling technique and practiced on a local gravel pit, and made about 10 river trips this last summer up to 29 miles one day.
But I learned the most that one week alone in the Boundary waters, and it wasn't just canoe skills I learned.