Before my freshman year of high school, we moved from the flat suburbs to a hilly area with our house at about 400ft. School to home was about 2 miles, with 1 mile flat and 1 mile of climbing. I quickly learned the limitations of my department store bike, the importance of shifting and gearing in the hills, and eventually upgraded to a Bianchi Brava I picked up from the classifieds. I even started to do some recreational riding in the area.
Riding became less frequent after I got my drivers license, went off to college, work/marriage/kids/etc. But some friends started organizing group rides / coffee shop socials, my kids got older and more independent, and I've been riding regularly ever since.