I guess this is one of those blog posts that my fellow geeks will nod along to and understand. Those from the outside of the community will think I’m a complete loser & weirdo. It’s okay I get it from both aspects. But I feel as if the large majority of the community feels this way too. I feel under the surface we will have our battles which disappear when entering a theme park’s gates. Worries & problems get left the moment that car door shuts or whichever form of transport you use. Let’s have a deep chat about this…
So, for me theme parks are my therapy. I’ve always had this rather fascinating interest in them. From the minute of riding Pirates Adventure at Drayton Manor, I felt this internal fire that lit with pure curiosity & enthusiasm to learn additional & more to the point I felt I had something to focus on. During that time it wasn’t exactly the best stage of my life let’s say and having that one passion to concentrate on whenever I had five did help. If not being able to visit in those moments simply having that drive to spend hours upon hours playing the original Rollercoaster Tycoon and physically drawing theme park related ideas & concepts by hand was sufficient to help me through.
It wasn’t until post-college that I learned to openly acknowledge the admiration & happiness that theme parks brought me. I always had this under the radar type of embarrassment regarding it & still did until the beginning of last year. But for me, my escapism is theme parks. It’s arriving at those gates and just forgetting about life outside. Whenever my weeks are awful & stressful or my mental health begins to spiral I find myself at the end of the week at a theme park. Just letting myself be free of those issues is insanely great for me mentally, and physically & it sets the week ahead up in such an optimistic way.
I know for a fact a lot of the people around me within this community feel the same. As much as I am aware & far from naive of the negative aspects that come with the community. There is equally as much positivity too. The fact we can all relate on some level is reassuring to know you aren’t alone. For me, the friendships which I have developed through this have been a helping hand in themselves. I & Ant have found a whole second family through this hobby where we both feel at home with those people. It is something extraordinary. Even on the matter of therapy this aspect of it as in the writing is my virtual therapy & safe place. You’ll tend to find an influx of content & posts from the evenings my MH doesn’t feel a 100% where I have binge wrote a crap load of blog posts. 
Theme parks are fun for us all regardless of the sentimental value for each of us. But more greatly look at the intenser characteristics & the incredible opportunities, people & memories we have seized along the way. Anyone who’s in this community or coming into this community if you feel as if having this as a hobby is weird please know it isn’t. Also, we are quite welcoming too I swear just don’t get yourselves into that dreaded debate… Nemesis or Nemesis Inferno. Haha, just kidding those debates are very healthy as long as we all remain thoughtful & kind.
So, my fellow nerds, does anyone else feel me on this topic?
Thanks for reading anyway it’s really appreciated!