Pollyism of the week

Ipretend to myself that I have no actual hobbies outside Netflix and a ridiculously unnatural interest in white-chocolate tasting, but yesterday I found myself doing something that might count.

I haven’t actually found an official term for what my hobby is, but I’ve been doing it since I was a child. In fact, shopkeepers would bribe me with a little “hobby treat” to leave their store on a Friday after late-night shopping.

I love paper. I am a “paperophile”. I’m sure there is a much better term for it, but I’ll google that in a minute. Adoration of paper must have started when I was super-young. Mum was my enabler. She used to buy my sister and me huge blocks of recycled paper to use for drawing and writing.

My sister became a wonderful artist and I guess my paper trail led me to writing. The kitchen table was always covered in this greyish blank paper, and we would sit there with crayons and pencils for hours. When it was a beautiful day, I’d go outside and play with all the other kids, while my sister, who was very bookish, would go off to read in the dark.

We would eventually come back together for arts and writing at the table, and I would plead with my sister Jeanette to make clothes for my paper dolls. At the age of six or seven, she was making paper dolls’ clothes that most adults couldn’t begin to perfect. I guess it was as a child that I fell in love with the idea of what paper could become and produce.

Am I Kindle person? Never! I like my books to be real and I like the feel of the pen flowing across paper. I love the texture and the strokes. I love the colours and the promise. I now feel slightly riddled with “tree guilt”, but gosh, can paper just be my one vice? Wait – paper and white chocolate?

Yesterday, as I was browsing Facebook, I saw an ad for subscription sample boxes. The boxes were designed for those of us who love the latest cosmetics and beauty treats. I was tempted, but then I remembered hearing someone recently say, “You can literally get anything online now!”

Really? Could I really have someone send me the latest paper treats every month? What about paper and pens? I googled it and boom! Not only can you subscribe to paper, but you have a billion, trillion choices. Truthfully, it could actually be an entire extra hobby just browsing websites that send you paper every month.

The thing about paper is that I don’t even necessarily want to write on it, send it or fold it into magical shapes. It’s the promise of what it could hold, the waiting for what will happen next.

I just googled “person who loves paper” and got back “stationery freak”. I was expecting something far more Greek and beautiful. I’m a freak. Yes, there’s no argument here!