Embracing your past and present passions

Photo by Madeline McInnis

I’m the type of person who used to take my passions incredibly seriously.

When I was younger, the things that I liked were an essential part of who I was. I unabashedly — to an embarrassing extent — proudly embraced them without a hint of any shame whatsoever.

Making my obsessions known to anyone who would talk to me for longer than five minutes, I cringe whenever Facebook so kindly showcases the posts I made six-plus years ago. This serves as a somewhat embarrassing reminder of my lack of self-awareness and how little people probably cared about my excited anticipation over the last Harry Potter film.

Although I have grown out of the several fleeting obsessions that I once dedicated so much of myself into, I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I refuse to feel bad for liking them in the first place, or for still enjoying them today.

At 22-years-old, I have learned that there’s really no point in giving a fuck about what people think regarding arbitrary things like my past and present personal tastes.

All of these examples and everything else in-between, have shaped who I am in some way, as cliché as that may sound.

I like what I like and I realize that they’re not all award-winning examples of entertainment, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have liked them begin with.

A lot of the time I wish I was more like my grade six self: a naive little human who certainly didn’t give a fuck about what people thought about me.

I loved Harry Potter — and still do — more than basically anything. The Jonas Brothers were my favourite band. Alice Cooper was my Halloween costume of choice that year and school was where I funneled most of my energy without a single concern over whether or not I looked like I was trying too hard.

At one point in time, I was dedicated to the Twilight novels and I thought that Glee was an amazing television show. By no means do I think that either of them are works of creative genius and I realize they are both problematic for various reasons.

However, Twilight fuelled my already passionate love of reading even further, and, if anything, gave me fictional examples of the types of men I should avoid in everyday life. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t down for a marathon to watch all of the poorly-acted movies that I saw in theatres when they originally came out.

My tastes have shifted as I’ve gotten older, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate what I used to spend my nights posting about on Tumblr and the hundreds of posters that I used to cover the walls in my room with.

I don’t think there will ever be a time in my life where I don’t love basically everything to do with Harry Potter, unabashedly adore Disney movies, know all the lines to the Pirates of the Caribbean films, or will ever turn down the chance to reread The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series. You’ll still catch me shamelessly watching Gilmore Girls reruns everyday of the week and quoting lines from Futurama or The Simpsons whenever I can.

All of these examples and everything else in-between, have shaped who I am in some way, as cliché as that may sound.

I don’t regret anything I chose to fill my time with, because that ultimately led me to the music, books, shows and movies I like today.

The warm, fuzzy nostalgia that I feel looking back on the eclectic assortment of entertainment that I’ve loved so passionately at various stages of my life, always makes me feel a wistful sense of happiness remembering how much I enjoyed them at the time.

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