Here are some objects that show how quickly my interests change 👍

    My room contains countless trinkets, toys, and oddities, with each one offering a glimpse into a certain phase of my life. Under the bed, you can find my swim team gear, boxes of snap circuits, a toy crane truck, and my first laptop. In my closet, there are model airplanes, Nerf guns, electronics, and Legos. Each of these items sits there, unused, but not forgotten, with each one telling of a different experience. However, amongst the unused are an array of things I find myself using quite often. The Nerf guns hail a time when all I wanted was a motorized blaster, even if my siblings didn’t want to get hit by one. I spent countless hours researching, watching videos online, and looking at Amazon to try to figure out the one that I wanted and what accessories to outfit it with. Despite the lack of potential targets, I was enamored by them.

     Another set of objects is from a difficult time for many, yet a nostalgic one for me. The electronics kit in my closet and the laptop under my bed remain from the beginning of 6th grade during the Covid-19 pandemic. I used this laptop for doing all my classwork, for programming the Arduino in my electronics kit, and to connect to Zoom for online school. I even hooked up a second monitor to it, something that most students didn’t have. This allowed me to browse parts for a new computer I wanted to build while still appearing to be paying attention in class. It was a fantastic combo for goofing off in class. It especially helped that I wasn’t using the school-provided Chromebook, allowing me to visit whatever websites I wanted. This was also my first experience being in control of my device, enabling me to use the Arduino I had for various little projects. Additionally, I wrote my first Python code on this laptop, starting a long-term interest in programming that hasn’t waned like some others.

    The sheer variety of objects in my room tells a story of constantly shifting interests, with some closely related and some wildly different. I find that it's so easy to forget topics that we dearly loved in the past when moving to other fascinations, so looking back through time can provide a wonderful experience. I have sometimes found hours of enjoyment exploring things in my closet or under my bed that I would never have remembered if I didn’t need to go looking there. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on how I’ve changed as a person throughout the years, with early interests such as Legos and Nerf guns slowly shifting to a love of the more complex. Nothing ever sticks too long, though, sometimes lasting months, but it’s not uncommon to be just weeks or even days before something else takes hold. While this pattern of changing interests often provides a lot of diversity in my life, it can also become a trap of discontent with what I have and lead to a desire for more. For example, about 50% of the time I was interested in cars was spent looking for deals on Facebook Marketplace, despite knowing there wasn’t a chance for me to get one.

    Remembering the little experiences is a challenge for many people, but it can be so valuable to see how far I’ve come since the time when these objects were relevant. Even if the object is unrelated, it can still bring up powerful memories of my thoughts and feelings at that time. Using objects from the past to look back is something I think more people should do. In hard times, it can bring joy to know that the world hasn’t always and won't always be this way, which is something that a lot of people might need right now.