Some of my hyper-fixations over time

I've had a number of hyper-fixations over my 29+ years on this earth. Some have been similar to another, some weird, some fun, some boring and I'd go over a few with you

Being a pilot

My first experience with aircrafts was  when I was around 5 years old and I saw a helicopter flying over my house, while we were playing. They were on approach and flying pretty close to the ground, that I could see the people in it. My dad used to work at an airline and shortly after that, he took me and my brother into the cockpit of one of their grounded planes and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

I immediately knew I wanted to be a pilot then. I went through primary school focused on that. By the time I got into secondary school, and I was doing poorly in the sciences, I briefly considered going into law. I enjoy reading and i associated law with lots of reading. My parents forced me back into the sciences and I went back with my first true love. I used to watch Air Crash Investigation and Seconds From Disaster with so much dedication that I still remember some of the crashes and what caused them. Why did I watch shows like that? I wanted to know all the possible ways a plane crash could happen so I could avoid them when I eventually became a pilot.

The thing is that even in Nigeria, this particular fixation is super expensive that I was aiming for full scholarships through writing the SATs'. I didnt rate the aviation school in Nigeria and wanted to get my training in the US. I was in my 3rd year in UNN when a helicopter company was offering a full scholarship and I was prepared to defer my admission for it. I was pretty sad when I didn't get it.

Playing a flute

I used to be in the choir when I was in KC. While I did sing different parts, I've always been fascinated about playing different instruments, from drums to lead guitars to keyboards. I settled on a flute sometime in SS2 (?). I used to read about the other instruments in the same family like clarinets and piccolos. I would look for entries about them in encyclopediasor music books and try to learn how they differed from each other. I met with the choirmaster after I'd done a lot of research and told him I wanted to pick up the flute. I got just the tip of it and I was told to practice blowing into it.  Found out that it was harder than it looked, for me at least.

I ended up losing interest in it way faster than the fixation lasted. I could not bring myself to produce the mouth action that the flute needed and gave up on it. That was not before I had damaged the piece and gotten the choir master angry. I moved on from it pretty quickly.

Being a full time poet

I started writing poems in my final year of UNN after a really bad heartbreak. Not much of a heartbreak if the feelings were one sided and never expressed to the person. I used to do a lot of sad poems back then and expressed my emotions through them. I used to get a lot of praise from friends for my poems and thought I was getting good at it. I hated my job a lot then and poetry was one of the few things that gave me joy. I would go out of my way to look for poetry books or collections online and also check bookstores for them.

I remember running into a guy on the bus home from work one night, and he saw me writing a poem and introduced himself as a spoken word poet and I was intrigued, so i explored that aspect of poetry. I didn't think spoken word would fit me, but I still went for their events when I could. I still write poems now, not as much as back then but it's still something that I enjoy.

People

I've always been obsessed with people for as long as I can remember. I've always liked the idea of making friends with new people since I was little. It's weird because I've always been this shy person and talking with people isn't something that comes naturally to me, especially when it's in person. I remember getting into university and being sort of in charge of visitations for the fellowship I was in. I would go visit and talk to people even if I had exams the following day. It was calming for me.

I've always liked the idea of making new friends and I make the effort to check up on them as often as I can. I have more friends than each of my friends do and people are always surprised that I can maintain that many friendships. I spent a huge chunk of my childhood lonely and in environments that I did not like and one of the first things that I did with my freedom in university was to amass as many friends as I could. I learnt as many things as I could about them, their likes, their fears, their dreams and what they held dear. Making new friends is one of the activities that brings joy to me.

Board Games

I suck at strategic board games but I've always had a thing for them, since secondary school at the least. I remember picking up a fascination with chess and learning the moves enough to play, thinking I could become a grandmaster (I can dream) or something of that nature, but never being able to win a game against anyone slightly good enough. I'm not sure I could win against newbies either. Stalemate all the way 😎.

I picked up an interest in Shouji from watching Naruto, Hunter x Hunter and some other Japanese shows and I even have the app on one of my devices. I picked up an interest in Go from watching Teen Wolf, The Glory and some Korean series but I don't have a mobile version 😔. With board games, I love watching people play them, and I'd try to check to see what rules apply to them. They always looks beautiful but I know I probably won't be good at them but it doesn't stop me from thinking about any of them frequently.

Plantain Chips

Honorable mention for one of the few snacks I sometimes think that I would not be able to live without. I used to buy so much plantain chips when I worked on the island that I could tell each brand I bought off the road apart. I knew which ones were great and which ones deserved to be hurled all the way into the sun. I used to feel bad when there was no traffic where I could buy some in.

During the pandemic, I found out that I could buy a jar of them for about 1300 naira and I bought a lot in one year that the jars filled up a big rice sack and we still had some lying around. I absolutely adore them and I'd buy them when I can. The drawback of being a plantain chips connoisseur is that I take my time looking for new brands of them that I can trust and won't make me want to throw up. I take plantain chips very seriously.

Epilogue

I didn't run to run the risk of boring you so I'd stop here. I could always do another part containing more things that I've been fixated on throughout my life but these feels ample enough to share with you all. Hope you enjoyed it. Bai bai.