This is a pretty accurate description of the approach I take with my personal interests. I tend to become fixated on a few specific recreations, ignoring everything else often to the detriment of more important things.
Am I proud of this? No..but I have come to accept it as my reality. Listed below are a few of my current obsessions, which have for better or for worse, become an important part of who I am.
A year later I had decided to pledge my allegiance to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and my obsession took firm root. I chose UNC because I was familiar with them, having lived in Chapel Hill and with my father having worked at the University hospital. At the time, I knew little of the program's storied history and even less about their legendary coach, Dean Smith.
Fast-forward 12 years and I have become the consumate UNC basketball fan. I live and breathe the game, spending countless hours each week combing the web for any information about the team. In the offseason, I religiously follow the recruiting game to see which players I will eventually be rooting for when they dawn the sacred Carolina Blue. In the past year, I have taken my obsession to the next level, creating my own fan site called Heel Heaven. The site has given me a creative outlet for expressing my opinions about the team and a means of connecting with other devoted UNC basketball fans. It is nice to be part of an online community that shares my devotion to the team.
I'm not proud of this obsession. It has wreaked havoc on my life in the past, particularly when the team has struggled. My mental well-being during the basketball season is intrinsically bound to the performance of the team. I revel in their victories and share their dejection after each loss. Each game is its own majestic play, with its emotional highs and lows. I never relax in a game until the outcome has been decided.
I realize that this may all sound a bit melodramatic, but it is the truth. I can't change it and I don't think I want to. Their is a history here, one whose weight is far too strong to overcome now. Every October I eagerly anticipate the beginning of the season and I feel a sense of sadness when the season finally ends. Their is a certain symmetry there that has become an integral part of my life.
Unlike in most American households, my family did not sit down to a family dinner together. Typically, my sister and I would eat together and then my parents would eat later. In India, it is customary for the women to serve the men first and then eat later after the men have finished with their meal. This practice is becoming less common in India, but I just wanted to give you some cultural context for my family's eating habits.
Anyway, the point of all this is to show that the dinner conversation rarely took place. However, I'm not one of those people who can just sit there eating and doing nothing else. To occupy the void, I started to bring a book with me to the dinner table. Even to this day, I invariably have to have some sort of snack to munch on while I'm reading. My favorite is popcorn with a cold soda.
So, with all this time to read at the dinner table, I managed to read quite a large number of books during my youth. As I matured, my interests began to move more to science fiction. I've always been fascinated by Astronomy and Physics and I suppose it was only natural that I would enjoy fiction that made use of these scientific disciplines. Another subject that intrigues me is the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It was this fascination that drove me to learn more about astronomy and biology. Some of my favorite authors include Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card and Greg Bear. Here's a list of my all-time favorite books.
If there is one constant in my life, it is my need to be continually reading something. My apartment is overflowing with books of various subjects. I used to get most of my books from the library, but I have fallen into the bad habit of buying books from the bookstore. I typically find time to read about an hour a day, though that has become more difficult now that I'm trying to juggle a full-load of classes and work.
To this day, I can think of no more elegant a subject then astronomy. Just contemplating the vastness of the universe and what is waiting to be discovered out there is enough to give me goosebumps. One of my favorite sites to visit is the Astronomy Picture of the Day, which features beautiful vistas of the heavens. My interest in astronomy eventually lead to an exploration of quantum physics and relativity, as these subjects are intimately connected. A large part of my reading during my high school years was spent on popular scientific books on these subjects.
When I entered college, I had grand dreams of working in the esoteric field of theoretical physics. I wanted to do research in superstring theory and astrophysics. Needless to say, these areas are restricted to the intellectual elite of our society, an exclusive group of which I quickly realized I was not a part of. So, I abandoned my childhood dreams of following in the footsteps of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. However, astronomy and physics still continue to fascinate me and I do my best to follow the latest developments in these areas.
Obsession can be a tricky concept and can consume your entire being to the point where everything else becomes blurred at the periphery.
