I get obsessed with things sometimes. Like I dont mean obsessed in the teenage joking quality of the word, I mean the kind of obsessed where I have to know everything. Where I put off sleeping to find out more.
It happens sometimes with basketball, or tennis, or playing guitar, or writing, or writing songs. For example at the moment, I'm obsessed with music, I've been re-acquainting myself with old stuff I used to know and I've been trying to take in as many new and different albums that I can.
I realise that for some people, what I have described there is not an obsession, it is simply the way they live their lives. I know some people for whom football is their obsession, but they tire of it. It's a constant thing. The same for guitar, or some other instrument.
See, for me (and I'm sure there must be plenty of others like it) obsessions come and go. A couple months back, I was absoloutely, 100% obsessed with tennis. British tennis, to be kinda specific, but in general the whole world of it.
I knew which players were in form and who was injured, and what results might mean for players ranked around the top 500 mark. I know that really isnt the coolest thing to admit. But it's not like I let it interfere with my life. I didn't put off seeing friends (yes, I still have friends) just to see how a specific player was doing, but just when I had spare time I would watch as much as I could.
That obsession has passed. I still like tennis very much. I still follow it, but not to the same lengths. Similiar things happen with basketball from time to time.
Equally, the same thing can happen with like writing a novel, or even like a specific type of writing. Like, Jonathan Creek was on recently, and that sparked a mild obsession with "locked room mysteries" where I bought a load of books and tried in vain to come up with some decent ideas of my own. That obsession has gone too, but its not like I wont read the books, I'm just wont make it a priority as part of my day.
I'm a bit jealous (I'm actually an acutely jealous person, but I'll write a blog about that another time) of people who can sustain obsession. Cos I dont think it means getting in the way of your actual activities, in could just be a generally private thing that occasionally slips in the public, but mainly just something you do on your own.
I actually cant sustain my obsessions at all. Like, when I'm obsessed with basketball, I know what a good basketball journalist I'd make. Cos that kind of obsession just takes me, and I have really, really enjoy finding things out and doing research etc etc etc.
But then, when the obsession fades and it just becomes a casual interest, I'm not sure I'd be able to keep myself motivated for a long time. I mean obviously, I'd enjoy it enourmously if it happened. But I feel like at some point, I would suddenly become obsessed with writing a novel or something, and that would depress me.
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