It's called Obsessive Fan Girl Disorder, and it's an integral part of my personality. If you don't already know about this part of me, you are now going to learn (if should give you plenty of laughs at how pathetic I can be)
It goes like this; I find something (type of music, type of novels, TV show, movie, language, country, etc.) and I latch on with both hands and legs, refusing to release it until I see something else that catches my flighty attention. To demonstrate this, I'll be using my most current obsession.
It always starts with something completely unrelated. In this case, an animated music video of a Japanese Vocaliod song. This one was particularly weird, but was catchy. Then comes the first discovery, usually something similar or direction related to the final obsession, in this case a Korean girl band called Girl's Generation. I take a liking to it, and after exhausting that I go looking for something similar to feed the growing OFG beast.
Then comes the real discovery, in this case finding the Korean boy band SHINee (pronounced "shiny." They are the 'adorable' band.) From there, it becomes a full blown obsession as I find similar boy bands that I fall in love with (i.e. Super Junior (the 'wow, that's a lot of singers' band), TVXQ! (pronounced Dong Bang Shin Ki. The 'HOT' band.), and BEAST (the 'cool' band)). I even learn the names and ages of all the band members (SJ is the exception because I don't have the brain space for thirteen names and faces, especially when they look different in every music video).
From there it just gets worse as I learn to sing along, despite not understanding the words, learn to read, write, and pronounce Korean script (Hangul), learn how to type Korean on the computer, chose a Korean name for myself, and it finally tops with wanting to write a story based on one of the band's music videos.
The end result is a YouTube playlist, the ability to read, write, and type Hangul even though I don't know the actual language, and a short story I'm passionate about but unsure how I'm ever going to finish it.
I promise, this happens every time. It happened in exactly the same why when I like the Jonas Brothers, it happened when I liked Burn Notice, it happened when I discovered crime drama TV shows, and I'm sure it will happen again in the future. That's just the way I am.
The different this time, as I have discovered while thinking about how this one has unfolded, is I almost feel like I'm being led. As you readers should know I've joined the Air Force and will be training as a cryptologic linguistics apprentice, which means I'll be studying a language for a year before actually starting my job. Now, with that knowledge, and this sudden obsession with Korean, I feel like this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
This sort of thing has been happening all the time since I first heard my dad say "You should join the Air Force." When I took the practice ASVAB test with the Iowa recruiter, I got an embarrassingly low score. So I did a little bit of studying, not nearly as much as I could have or should have, and yet when I went and took the real test, I past with an extraordinarily high score, something I know I wouldn't have gotten if I wasn't supposed to join. Then, I got my heart set on desk job because I didn't want to do something mechanical, and I made all my plans based on that. Then, out of the blue my recruiter mentions a job I hadn't thought of (cryptologic linguistics) and my parents convinced me to at least take the test. So, like an obedient daughter, I took the test, not really expecting to pass. I hoped I would, but I didn't really expect to. After the HARDEST test of my life, I somehow managed to pass. I know for a fact that I couldn't have passed that test without help because I struggled so much, but I must be meant to be a translator, because I did pass. Then, I began thinking about what language I would want to learn, and suddenly here I am faced with Korean, which made an unexpected appearance in my life.
I learned how to read and write Hangul in a day. I learned how to type it in less than half an hour. Now, I may be good at memorizing, but I am not THAT good. I've never learned anything this fast before. So, I've come to the hesitant conclusion that, like joining the Air Force and getting the cryptologic linguistics job, I'm meant to learn Korean.
Sorry if this post changed in the middle. I was thinking through my fingers, and after a talk I had yesterday with mom I went back and re-examined how I got to this point. It has been a strange and enlightening journey since dad first suggested joining.
Anyway, I hope you got a good laugh out of the first half. I certainly laugh when I think of how bad my obsessions can get sometimes.
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