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"If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now." - Zaphod Beeblebrox, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Your hobbies are intrinsically about you, some core aspect of your personality. Even if your hobbies only go as far as "that's what my friends like to do", that tells you something about yourself - even if it's just that you're a follower who's more interested in going with the flow than actually figuring out your own likes and dislikes.
The worst is when you have hobbies that no one else around you enjoys. Extra points if they've never even heard of it, or have only heard of the most basic examples of it. ("Japanimation" =/= "Sailor Moon"! Do you remember the days when it used to be called Japanimation? Now I really feel old.)
My fellow-geeks-well-met will recognize this, but I suspect it's true of anyone with a really obscure hobby (model trains? stamp collecting?). The first time you meet other people like you - people who love to dress up as their favorite characters, who can discuss the endless minutiae of the slight differences in stamp print runs, whose goal in life is to own the entire set of the American Flyer series - that's the greatest moment in the world.
You've been validated. Other people not only understand your love, they share it.
It's coming home.
There will always be the crotchety elders of the family ("I remember when you had to walk six miles uphill both ways in the blazing heat just to get a glimpse of Shatner while filming Wrath of Khan!"), and the younger generation with their boundless energy and their complete lack of social etiquette (I was that kid that would use Japanese words in every other sentence, regardless of my conversational partner) and there's sometimes, yes, the creepy old uncle who takes it too far, even by family standards.
Because they're still your tribe: they understood, when no one else did. And sometimes that can hurt, when they fuck up. But it can be fantastic. It can keep you going when nothing else can.
And sometimes you'll move on, find another family of choice, but - barring severe exceptions - you'll probably look back on that time with fondness.
What is it like to have a deep, abiding interest in something that's well-accepted by the world? Is there such a thing? (TV probably doesn't fit this - I have a suspicion that your average Joe would look askance at your average Troper, for example. Nor your job - we call those "workaholics". Celebrities? Sports?)
What is your deep, abiding love? What kept you going when nothing else did?
Your hobbies are intrinsically about you, some core aspect of your personality. Even if your hobbies only go as far as "that's what my friends like to do", that tells you something about yourself - even if it's just that you're a follower who's more interested in going with the flow than actually figuring out your own likes and dislikes.
The worst is when you have hobbies that no one else around you enjoys. Extra points if they've never even heard of it, or have only heard of the most basic examples of it. ("Japanimation" =/= "Sailor Moon"! Do you remember the days when it used to be called Japanimation? Now I really feel old.)
My fellow-geeks-well-met will recognize this, but I suspect it's true of anyone with a really obscure hobby (model trains? stamp collecting?). The first time you meet other people like you - people who love to dress up as their favorite characters, who can discuss the endless minutiae of the slight differences in stamp print runs, whose goal in life is to own the entire set of the American Flyer series - that's the greatest moment in the world.
You've been validated. Other people not only understand your love, they share it.
It's coming home.
There will always be the crotchety elders of the family ("I remember when you had to walk six miles uphill both ways in the blazing heat just to get a glimpse of Shatner while filming Wrath of Khan!"), and the younger generation with their boundless energy and their complete lack of social etiquette (I was that kid that would use Japanese words in every other sentence, regardless of my conversational partner) and there's sometimes, yes, the creepy old uncle who takes it too far, even by family standards.
Because they're still your tribe: they understood, when no one else did. And sometimes that can hurt, when they fuck up. But it can be fantastic. It can keep you going when nothing else can.
And sometimes you'll move on, find another family of choice, but - barring severe exceptions - you'll probably look back on that time with fondness.
What is it like to have a deep, abiding interest in something that's well-accepted by the world? Is there such a thing? (TV probably doesn't fit this - I have a suspicion that your average Joe would look askance at your average Troper, for example. Nor your job - we call those "workaholics". Celebrities? Sports?)
What is your deep, abiding love? What kept you going when nothing else did?
