For many years I had hated JavaScript. Coming from a backend background first with Java, then PHP, I found JavaScript over the years difficult to deal with. As a result of this, I focused on backend logic while I let others deal with the frontend. A few years ago however, I began taking interest in a couple of JavaScript Frameworks that emerged.
I held a couple of jobs where I had to learn a bit of jQuery but I really hated the fact that I had to install various plugins to do certain things just because I could not develop those functionality myself. There is actually nothing wrong in using plugins, it's just that over time, then tend to blow up your frontend code and that ends up slowing down your page speeds. This is mitigated by the rise of CDNs and non-cookie based online storage systems as well as caching.
A couple of JavaScript Frameworks got my attention and I spent some time with them. These were Angular 1, Backbone.js and EmberJs. Of the three, I really liked Angular but the problem I had then was that when I started looking into it, Angular 2 was in the pipeline and the fact that Angular 2 was meant to be a re-write from the ground up discouraged me from going deep in my learning of Angular 2. It was during this interlude that I came across VueJs.
My first shock was that I was able to create a working component within a couple of minutes of reading the manual and within a couple of days, I could actually implement VueJs logic on existing pages of an application I was working on! This triggered in me the desire to learn more about JavaScript and go over some concepts that I didn't fully understand before like Promises and Callbacks.
I started using VueJs since it was in beta and since then there has been no going back. When React was released, out of curiosity, I learnt the basics and even tried to build an application using React but VueJs has always been and is today my de-factor JavaScript Framework for any web application I have built.