Serial obsessive

Jennifer and I recently visited our friend Valerie in Charleston, SC.  When we were there Val pointed out something to me that I knew about myself, but she really gave me a good-natured hard time about it.  It caused me to think some more about it and definite, so here goes...

I'm a serial obsessive.

Here's what this looks like for me.  I find someone or something that interests me and I devour all the information I can possibly find until I tire of it.  Then I move on.  Usually I incorporate some part of that obsession into my core identity, but not always.

I have reason to believe this is genetic, but I won't tell you which of my parents is to blame :)

The cycle lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few years.  

Here's a non-comprehensive list of things I've obsessed over (as well as when the obsession started and waned), most of these things I still enjoy, but I have moved on from obsessing...

• Basketball (Middle School and early high school)
• Learning Piano (Middle School and High School)
• Frank Sinatra (High School)
• Choral Music and music education (High school and Early college)
• Colts Football (College and early adulthood)
• Audio production (2005-2008)
• Liverpool Football Club (2007-2008)
• Atheism (2007-2009)
• Objectivism (2008)
• Science, specifically evolutionary studies as well as origins of human life (2007-2008)
• Food, specifically the industrial food complex (2009)
• Scooters (2009 - until I saw that motorcyclist wreck right in front of me)
• Golf (2010 - present)
• Minimalism (2011-present)
• Debt elimination and money management (2005-present)
• Organization (2012 - present)
• Woodworking (2013 - present) though I've always enjoyed watching programs like New Yankee Workshop, etc.
• Philosophy and Psychology (2013 - Present)
• Online journaling (2013 - Present)

I'd like to think I've absorbed the best of these things and left the obsession behind.  Also, realizing that I do this has helped me in some ways to break the cycle.  I find that I'm more likely now to spend more time learning and I'm less likely to spend money on things that I will eventually drop.  Progress!!!