Lately, my thoughts have been thoroughly occupied with wondering about things that I actually like. The things that genuinely and authentically bring me joy, fascinate me, and that I find beautiful.
These days, it so often feels as if everything I feel drawn to is just some sort of curation, a trend conjured by media and ultimately targeted at streamlining and tricking folks into buying. This has led to me, ironically, also following a current trend of trying to take a step back and think of my past. Childhood memories, even my teenage years, and the things I enjoyed back then.
I felt this was a way to regain authenticity and reconnect with my identity. A sort of true self found through my inner child’s simplest joys and fixations.
Mushrooms, Fairies & Hobbit Adventures
Now, some of those things definitely surfaced again several years ago when I rediscovered my love for all things related to fantasy and the natural world as well.
Specifically, a love for mushrooms had blossomed, and in the years since then I’ve been joyfully meandering through our lovely European forests, collecting all the amazing different species of mushroom I remembered by heart - and Latin name - from all those days long years ago when I would take to the woods with my father.
We’d have packed an encyclopedia that most of the time weighed more than all of our finds combined, a proper woven basket from the local farmer, and my dad’s trusty Swiss Army knife that he holds on to until this day.
This way we’d drive around the Bavarian countryside, scouring every forest for the finest, most delicious mushrooms we’d turn into all sorts of dishes and delicacies.
Circling around the theme of woods, I have also had a great love for fairies and natural spirits, myths surrounding old forests, and naturally adored shows I discovered in this time like Over the Garden Wall.
The theme of great adventure and small heroes has also always held a special place in my heart, which brought me time and time again to crave adventuring sessions in the great outdoors - preferably dressed up in proper Hobbit attire and accompanied by a group of trusted and well-liked friends.
What Is Actually Me?
The past months, however, I found myself in a bit of a DIY craze and have manufactured half of my entire DIY Pinterest board.
After molding about 50 air-dry clay charms, I started to run out of motives. All the classics and some of the current trends like red apples, buttons, or sardines I had already crossed off the list, and I started wondering to myself:
What is something that uniquely represents me?
How can I express my authentic excitement about random stuff by modeling miniature versions of it and putting them on a keychain or clip?
Just as I usually do with ideas that are only slowly being generated by my very preoccupied mind in inches and increments, I started to note them down digitally, one after the other.
I even talked to my friends about my strange little likes and asked them about theirs. Some of the things were new to me, some old, but all in all it was sort of wonderful to put together so many pieces of information about one individual so close to you.
Talking in this kind of way just feels so fun and like a little break from all the messy ongoings of the world these days.
I highly encourage you to also listen inwards over the next few days. Think long and thoroughly about some of your authentic interests, even if the memories are deeply faded and take a long time to dig out and bring to the surface.
My list turned out pretty nicely, and I believe it is a decently accurate depiction of my inside gremlin that just likes stuff because it thinks it’s cool and/or looks kinda nice.
I will share the list with you in the following, so that you can make a picture of that me-sort-of-version for yourself.
Do with it what you will.
Things I Like
- Mandarin ducks
- Green mandarin (a kind of fish)
- Things made of glass that are not usually made of glass
- German movie adaptations of books by Cornelia Funke
- Butterfly bush
- The little star spots on the Animal Crossing: New Leaf floor that marked buried treasure
- Colorful slimes (ideally scented)
- Chewing gum cigarettes
- Being read to in bed
- Finger skateboards
- Finding a new audiobook in the library
- A beaded, woven necklace with a loop and a knot at the end for a clasp that I got on vacation in Egypt
- Sunfish
- Being home alone with a binge-worthy show
- Frog migration
- Books in which bugs live like a little society
- Catching a snippet of a foreign language being spoken
- Goat petting zoos
- Princess cone hats with a veil at the tip
- Everything glow-in-the-dark
- Various kinds of confetti (snow = winter confetti, falling leaves = autumn confetti, sprinkles = sugar confetti, sand = beach confetti)
- The color combination of pink and red
- Hurrying inside the restaurant, half-finished dish in hand, because of a spontaneous thunderstorm
Liking Things Just Because
It is lovely to think about so many nostalgic things I used to be obsessed with and even still feel a strong sense of fondness and attachment to.
Thinking of past likes, however, has led to me also observing more closely current obsessions and interests of mine, and I’d like to bargain that not all of them are as heavily influenced by nowadays’ microtrends and aesthetics as the others.
Earlier this year, I started looking up the weather and temperatures for the next few days on the internet almost obsessively.
While in the beginning I did it to be better prepared and plan my outfits around the forecast, I’ve also started finding strange comfort in the coming weather’s almost certain, mostly non-threatening predictability.
There is something entirely soothing about knowing the future can be measured and foretold in however small this area may be.
And if the forecast is slightly amiss… who cares? The world’s not gonna end from a couple more or less degrees or a spontaneous rainfall.
How lovely to have such a constant.
I even started listening more closely whenever the meteorologist explains current streams and winds on the news. Although I am by no means an expert yet, I find true, genuine enjoyment in this small part of life.
And perhaps you can find a similar thing for yourself too.
It is a lovely thing to like something, just because.