We're obsessed
we all have that thing that just won't give us up
“I passed so many vacant acres and looked past them to so many more vacant acres and looked ahead and behind at the empty road and up at the empty sky; the sheer bigness of the world made me feel lonely to the bone. The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size. It makes the world seem not huge and empty but full of possibility.”
— Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief
Welcome to Following Studies, a newsletter of adventures through subcultures and obsession.
I'm Laura, and I'll be your trusty guide.
You know a few of my obsessions if you've met me off the internet. I've talked to you about influencers getting teeth removed rather than root canals. I'm passionate about how I believe the one piece of kitchen equipment you should have, no matter what, is an immersion blender. I want to talk about the new cult you found. I want to hear about how all the Sister Wives are leaving, Scandoval is popping off, Selena and Hailey will always be in the news, and recently, I've tried to convince you to play Dutch Blitz.
Once, in high school, I went with a friend to her boyfriend's house. He was the basketball player type, and years later, I'd run into him in the middle of the state with him still wearing a worn-out high school sweatshirt. His childhood home was filled with photos. I came from a scrapbook family where our memories were carefully cataloged and stickered by my mom, so truly seeing the number of images that could be hung on walls was shocking. More shocking to my core than the life-size photos of him and his sister on the stairway was 'The Andy Griffith Room,' a living room of sorts that his parents had devoted entirely to the show and Mayberry.
I was in awe of it - primarily because until then, I hadn't considered that adults could completely theme a room beyond fall leaves (my childhood living room), the sea (my childhood kitchen), or other subtle 'adult' themes. No, you could love something passionately and unabashedly and express that through home decor.
You could make your world anything you wanted it to be.
I've known people with rooms devoted solely to dolls. Others obsessed with video games, toy trains, Beyonce, and venomous snakes. I've been consumed by Airstreams, by the Avett Brothers, by religion. I've thought so many times: this is the thing I'm meant to do. I will be this for the rest of my life. And then I've been obsessed with something else. For an unfortunate moment, my best friend was obsessed with Justin Bieber at the height of his Baby, Baby fame. Standing in the theater, watching the crowd go wild in the kind of reckless abandon I'd only seen before at church camp, I thought, this is love.
Obsession also has a way of snuffing out the rest - good or bad. It makes itself the only thing other people can see about us. I've known people who are stressed that for all their different interests and their other work, people would only see that one part of themselves. They are layered and multidimensional, they'll argue. But like me, like probably you, even for a short time, they were obsessed.
But that's the thing, most of us have something that we just can't give up - or instead, won't give us up.
To be so singular in a passion, so objectively obsessed with something - that is what we will explore in Following Studies.
We will explore the things we follow, the things that follow us, and how those things introduce us to others to make the world feel a bit more connected.
I've gone through phases, cyclical moments of obsessions. I've walked Carolina Beach religiously in search of sea glass for a time. I've described myself as a mood reader - falling into small niches of reads until something else pulled me away. I've been obsessed with skincare, a walking treadmill, nail-biting, cooking, true crime, DIY-ing, and coffee. I'll wear the same thing over and over again because, quite simply, I'm obsessed. I made sourdough along with half the world in 2020.
There's always something to pull me in, even if it doesn't keep me forever.
But obsessed with the fact that people are obsessed with things? I've always been taken.
Welcome to the fun. In the next few weeks, you'll meet a horse girl, a gang of paragliders that step into the sky from the San Bernardino Mountains, Airstream lovers, and you'll be dealt into the world of board gamers.
It's endless — the things we love and love us back.
Let's explore.
Recommended Reading
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean