Why I Obsess

First off, I’m thinking that I’m going to be changing the update days of this blog from Sunday and Wednesday to Monday and Thursday, simply because that’s when my schedule allows me free time to write these. 

           

My last few posts have generally been less then glowing with happiness, and I don’t want this blog to be turning into a place where I just rant about things that upset/irritate me.  When the biggest tag on your blog is “rants,” you know that something’s wrong.  Therefore today’s post is something that’s a little bit lighter in mood as well as an explanation to anyone that doesn’t really know me (if there is anyone that reads this that doesn’t really know me) about why fandom seems to be so prominent in many of my posts.

Over the course of the nineteen years that I’ve been on this planet, I’ve accrued many obsessions.  When I was younger I was fascinated (read: obsessed) with natural disasters, by roller coasters, by meteorology and would learn all that young little me could through books.  Ask me what keeps a roller coaster from going backwards when it’s going up a hill, or what was the greatest cause of death in Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted, and I could probably tell you.  Over time, these obsessions fell back one by one, with a few major exceptions.  Throughout all those years, I held onto my obsessions with Harry Potter, art, and Lord of the Rings, to name a few.  Now, when I say obsess, I don’t mean in the “OME I THINK EDWARD CULLEN IS SO HAWT AND NO BOY WILL EVER BE THAT AWESOME” way.  Yes, I am picking on Twilighters, because a large portion of them are the ones that give fandoms a bad name.

So what do I mean when I say: “obsess?”  I mean that it takes a lot to really get me into a fandom, so when I do get into one, I really get into it.  I like to theorize about what’s coming up, I like to talk about it with friends (who I usually manage to get obsessed too…and they get me back for it with other fandoms), I draw fanart for fun, I listen to podcasts, I visit websites, and you know what, it’s perfectly okay.  Because the thing is, I honestly don’t obsess over too much.  Harry Potter, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, FMA, etc, there’re not really too many that rank among the “totally obsessed” list here. 

It’s been through fandoms that I’ve found some of my best friends, my oldest friend and I bonded through Harry Potter, and it was with she that I waited outside the theater for nine hours to see the final Harry Potter movie.  It’s partially because of fandoms that I’ve realized that I want to be an illustrator for a career…Mary Grand Pre’s illustrations for the Harry Potter books and Alan Lee’s illustrations for the Lord of the Rings books have especially influenced me in this regard.  Most important of all, honestly, is that I just enjoy being involved in fandoms.  They transport me to new worlds, they create characters that I’ve grown to love, they have served as a common ground to meet new people and discover new interests, and they have overall given me hours upon hours of fun and relaxation (and in the case of this last series of Doctor Who, headache). 

So when people tell  me that it’s not a good thing to be obsessed, I say “screw them” because you know what, I enjoy it, and it’s all good.  Whether it’s art or fandom that I’m obsessed with, it’s something to give me a break from reality and I love it.