Whenever I had nightmares as a kid, sometimes I could force myself awake. It's wierd, because there was a basic "it's a dream" awareness only for a split second, and I didn't care about staying in the dream, I wanted to get out!
Much later as an adult, about 2 years ago, I had a spontaneous WILD into a dream of flight through my neighborhood. It was at first a little scary, but then became one of the most exhilirating experiences of my life! I was only vaguely aware of lucid dreaming, and wasn't even sure what it was called, so I went to Google also and began to learn.
Well, things got out of hand, and here I am!