Good gracious....youve brought a tear to this Bunny's eye (seriously...no ones ever complimented me in such a way) so thankyou!
*my hair is tailbone length now..woo*
erm......my last major haircut was to my shoulders in either '98 or '99, i cant remember exactly. after that i just didnt cut my hair and i didnt care about splits either (oh the shame). then all of a sudden i realised my hair was waist length! (i was about 17 then) i honestly cant remember my hair between shoulder and waist...it wasnt intentional i just forgot about it...probably because i was 14 and had my first boyfriend (..i obsessed a bit, but im still with him at 19 so its all good)
anyhoo...people started to notice my long hair and i liked it so i kept it up and got my dad to trim it back to waist/hip length every few months. then i found long locks a few months back and have decided to grow to classic then maybe to mid thigh.
whilst my hair is tailbone and healthy/shiny and all that jazz...the last few inches of my hair are quite thin cos of all the years of wearing it down all the time and blow frying and brushing when wet and not clarifying, etc. i cant bear to lose those inches at the mo but when my hair is classic i will be cutting them off.
so to sum up   between the ages of 14-19 ive only had trims, but the biggest factor is to ignore your length as much as you can....and look after your ends!!!

happy growing...you'll get there and have GORGEOUS hair thanks to everyone here!      

and thanks again for such a compliment...it really means a lot to me  
xxx

ps...just looked at your profile. your looking after your long hair at 13....in a few years time your hair will be so loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong!!! and your ends will be fab!