Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
When I was about 30 years old I became obsessed in learning criminalistics. I wanted to be an amateur forensics investigator. First, I bought textbooks, materials, a microscope, and a chemistry set. Second, I started learning how to process a crime scene. These procedures included how to lift fingerprints and footprints. How to prepare a slide for the microscope, and be capable of recognizing the different types of fibers. I trained with hair from my dog and my cat, since they are completely different under the microscope. Also, how to test for traces of several chemical components. I was ready, in my mind, to join in a crime scene investigation!
This goes in line with my teenager wish of becoming a world-renowned detective. There was no shortage of inspiration for this. Actually, there was a fever in the 2000s about police procedures. Innumerable TV shows, books, and reality shows on Discovery Channel explored this topic. These were the cultural trends that influenced me:
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
This show was so popular! Of course, I was a big fan. They had captured the interest of the public with their detailed description of scientific techniques to solve a crime. This was done in a way that was never boring. When they needed to show something on the microscopic level, the special effects brought you there. You learned things like how a blood spatter would be like if it fell from a certain height. Or how bullets would have the same pattern of scratches when fired from the same gun. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation did a lot to make me want learn the trade secrets.
Classical detectives
But that was only the culmination of years, actually decades, of my interest in detective fiction. I used to read the ratiocination tales about Auguste Dupin, the French detective created by Edgar Allan Poe. By that time, I had read the entire canon of adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I had also read many books by Agatha Christie. They featured her most famous detectives: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Displaying their intellectual ability, Sherlock Holmes showed the force of deduction. Poirot relied in the power of the little gray cells. Miss Marple had a deep knowledge of human nature. But one way or the other, they always ended up using some forensic technique to catch the criminal.
What happened to this hobby of mine? Well, unfortunately I never have encountered a real crime scene to exercise what I learned. But I wanted to be ready, just in case. I cherish that phase of my life. Who knows whether I will still get a chance?