AN ODE TO SPECIAL INTERESTS Max

To the autistic joy of info-dumping

Because did you know Australian magpies are classified as songbirds, not intelligent corvids like European magpies?

An ode to sitting cross legged for 14 minutes staring at the most complete triceratops skeleton in the world and finally feeling like myself

Returning to passions long repressed as childish or silly

My love for frogs sparked at age 4 when I told a frog to open its mouth and it did

My awe when I first learned about archeopterix, the missing link between dinosaurs and modern birds

An ode to my expressions of love

To days listening to my partner's infodumps about Metallica and wrestling

To nights spent reading together about the Beatles, listing all the reasons Ringo is the best

An ode to the happiness I feel when I identify a bird in the wild

And seeing native bees, who don't have hives or a matriarch but rather live in pairs and burrow into the ground

My growing collection of frog themed items and clothing

But most of all an ode to the special interests I see around me

To shrek and sharks and lightning mcqueen

To my happiness seeing other people being authentically themselves

And the bravery it lends me as I find a place in a new community

I'm happier than I've ever been

And it's thanks to birds and snails and bees

So an ode to special interests

And an ode to being me