Throughout my life, something that has always interested me is mapping. I have always been curious about the world and the methods of expressing it, such as maps or globes. However, unlike other methods of expression, maps have consistently elicited great pleasure in me. As such, I often go on social media for the sole purpose of looking at maps. My interest in maps has also led me to collect them, including the one I am writing about presently. Although significant in other ways, my map below is primarily a memento of my inclusion in the map-loving subculture and my life concerning my family relations and childhood. 

The artifact of my world map, which hangs in my room, proclaims that I like maps and that I am part of the map-loving subculture. This subculture consists of a group of people who look at and adore maps, and I am grateful to be a part of it.  I engage in map-loving on internet forums such as r/MapPorn, a map-lovers community on Reddit. My map has a traditional nature, with its style coming from the 18th or 19th century. Also, judging by the words “Silver Map” and “Royal Geographical Society” being present on my map and by the fact that the words on my map appear handwritten in a traditional style, it is an old and prestigious map. The people in my subculture are in awe of old and prestigious maps, as these maps help show past perceptions of the world, which they find fascinating. As such, these maps are exoticized and romanticized by them. The perception by the map-loving subculture of my map makes me appear sophisticated and nuanced, traits which I feel I lack without this praise.  Most people perceive my love of this map as weird, and they consider me to be way too obsessed about maps in my daily life, when it is as healthy as any other hobby that anyone else has. Since my “obsession” with maps is also not harming anyone and, in fact, helps me to learn about the world, I would say that it is constructive, even if I do go a bit overboard in it sometimes. By presenting this map, I hope to communicate my passion with maps to a broader audience, introducing my friends and family to the map-loving subculture. In doing this, I would be able to increase the size of my subculture, and make this world more curious and exciting by making more people susceptible to looking at maps critically. 

My map also reminds me of my grandfather, both of which are deeply related to each other. For many years before I acquired it from him, my grandfather owned this map. Before receiving it, I looked at it in his house, admired it, and talked with him about it for endless hours over the many holidays I spent celebrating at his home. These conversations with my grandfather made me feel included and intelligent, feelings which I lacked for many years due to my social awkwardness and shyness in school. Soon after I acquired the map, it fell off my wall, and I barely saved it from breaking by picking it back up again. Around the same time, my father saved my grandfather from having a stroke by driving him to a hospital before it was too late. Both experiences scared me dearly, but both gave me a new appreciation for my grandfather and my map. Also, given that I already had experiences relating to the map and my grandfather, I connected both of them, and I came up with the idea that my grandfather and the map had some deeper relationship and that the map symbolizes him, a person who I value, love, and look up to.

This map most importantly keeps the boy within me who loves to play and draw maps alive. The map preserves the childlike curiosity and creativity within me, and it saves me from the terrors of adulthood, where they go away. I fear that if I lose the child within me who is fascinated by maps, I will become an emotionless robot or a miserable, average person. What horror! Luckily, due to this map being enmeshed in my family, culture, and personality, this will be prevented from happening as the map stimulates the curiosity and creativity that form a fundamental part of my nature. 

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