Collecting

 As a kid I never was able to collect anything. No. I take that back. I did have a bit of a penny collection and for a few weeks my dad would bring home rolls of pennies and sometimes nickels and we'd search for wheat-back pennies and any missing pennies from my little brown-covered fold-up book. I had most of the pennies between 1956 and 1982 and a few steel war-time cents. I think it was the prospect of finding the needle in the haystack that propelled me. If I searched hard enough, that I'd find that valuable coin nestled in a paper tube with 49 other cents.  

But baseball cards? Hot Wheels? Matchbox Cars? Knives? Sure, we had our Star Wars action figures, but those were just enough to act out adventures and only came at random birthdays or holidays. Maybe my mild hoarding, random and scattershot as it may be, is a way to collect? A collection of the everyday? From Tic Tac boxes, Altoids tins, every book I've purchased? Am I secretly building a unified collection of ephemera? Or am I just a mild hoarder?

I thought maybe I'd found a way to collecting with watches.  Getting interested in a watch-related podcast in 2019 I became part of a community of watch enthusiasts and over time doubled the number of watches in my drawer. Was I becoming a collector? After the number crossed 10, was I now officially a collector? 

Let's take a step back. I've worn watches nearly every day since I was 6. Without giving away everything, I well past that age and now past the half-way point. When I was struggling with anxiety over my parents moving again, they gave me a small 28mm Timex manual-wind watch so that at school I would always know how long it would be until they returned for me. If you think this sounds ridiculous, I went to 3 kindergartens. before I turned 6. Anxiety has always been a feature of my life. So have watches. I have almost every watch I have worn since those early days. Early digital? Early ani-digi, manual, quartz, automatic, I've got them in my box. 

But is it a collection? I don't know. I don't part with things. Books. Bikes. Cameras. Telescopes. Watches. I don't see things.  I keep things.  As I've spent more time in the enthusiast scene I've come to realize that watches are an accessory to my life, and maybe more a touch-stone, but I'm not enthused the way I see others. I don't make critiques about whether a watch would be better if it were 1mm larger or smaller. Or thinner. Or lighter. Or blue. Or pink. Or purple. I'm not hyper-focused on Swiss or Japanese or German. Being an early-retiree, a Rolex or Omega is probably out of the question. And I'm starting to think maybe I'm set on watches for now. 

I like watches. I love wearing watches. I love knowing certain watches have been with me on particular adventures or at pivotal moments in my life. If I had to run into my house to get anything after my wife, dog and passport were secure, it would probably be for that early Timex and a cheap-ish quartz Tissot Chronograph that has accompanied me to 30+ countries. And as I think about collecting, it is collecting adventure where maybe after all I am a collector.

Completeness in travel is meaningful for me. I've been to all 50 US states - just after turning 35 that was complete. I've worked in 45 states, plus Puerto Rico. I've worked in nearly 20 countries and worked on all 6 "major" continents, plus the Subcontinent. It is driving my urge to go to Antarctica. I have to have the completeness of touching the 7th continent. I've had a Wisconsin Old Fashioned in every supper club in Door County even. 

So while I started out thinking I wasn't a collector, but a mild hoarder, perhaps in the end I just collect differently.  It isn't in a box of baseball cards or Matchbox cars, but rather collecting experience and adventure. Maybe that's enough.