Dropped
Stopped freelancing. And with that, dropped php too.
Using
Orders started coming in for tweaks to (or co-authoring of) hand-rolled CMSes. Got acquainted with databases.
Using
Started getting my first orders: "extend a WP or Joomla module", "code up a page layout", "make a website". Starting to try OOP on for size in PHP. Figuring out AJAX.
Assessing
Learning how to build websites from articles in the Igromania and Xakep magazines. The articles were about blogging CMSes. That's where I started — and they ran on PHP.