I have not see that one in the http://blogs.openstreetmap.org feed so here it is : Adventures of an Amateur Cartographer at http://frogplate.net/blog/amateur-cartographer.html

This article by a new contributor describes his journey from listening to a FLOSS podcast to discovering OpenStreetMap, playing with Potlach, gathering GPS tracks and finding joy in mapping. I find it a nice illustration of a typical first encounter with OSM.