No One Cares About Your Interests

I can’t tell you how many times I get excited about something, start telling a friend all about it, and see that ominous glaze over their eyes. Let’s be honest, not everyone cares about all your interests. Not even your closest friends.

One example of where this happens to me constantly is whenever I am reading a really really good book. No one ever seems to enjoy listening to me blabber on and on about how good the story is. Now…this is partly because I always worry about spoiling the book so I don’t give enough detail to actually make it sound interesting. So maybe this one is actually all on me, but you still get the idea.

We all have our own interests, and we should never be ashamed of them. But if you don’t have a community that cares, or can’t seem to find one, then I suggest you write about your interests yourself! Even if you do have that community, write about it anyways! You never know who you will meet along the way.

I also have plenty of interests that are actually interesting to my friends. Things like roasting coffee, krav maga, woodworking, and mountain biking. It is great to talk to my friends about our different hobbies; that’s what a relationship is all about. But none of my friends are into mountain biking, and so they aren’t going to want to discuss the comparison of 27.5″ and 29″ wheels! But on the flip side, I can totally write about that and someone out there will care!

This is the beauty of writing. You can pour your heart out and someone out there will enjoy it. Eventually. Maybe. Hopefully.

If anything, it is refreshing just to get your own thoughts and interests out on a page. My enjoyment of writing is not based on how other people respond. If everyone hates it, then it still felt good to write it out anyway! And if people love it, then it always feels good when you know you made someone’s day a little bit better.

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A version of this post was previously published on Medium and is republished here with permission from the author.

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