It’s hard writing about the things you love.
I’ve been writing about various things for nearly ten years: through YouTube videos, game reviews for a website and the occasional book, opinion pieces masquerading as forum posts across the internet, and more recently, on this website. But no matter how many words I’ve written, it’s still difficult to articulate why I’m so fond of something to myself, never mind trying to articulate those feelings in a way that makes sense to others.
Maybe that speaks to how much something can mean to you, if you can’t use conventional language to explain the impact it’s had on you; only a feeling. Maybe it’s the enthusiasm in your voice when you talk ever so briefly about it, or how you might instinctively compare an element from it to the subject of a conversation you’re having. It could just be the inspiration it gives you in your day-to-day life, or even in your dreams.
If you can’t find the right words to describe how you feel, that doesn’t mean your feelings are suddenly invalid. They matter just as much as anyone else’s, and just because you can’t articulate them doesn’t make them worthless or vapid. I’m saying this to myself as much as I’m saying it to you. It’s something I need to remember more often when trying to write these articles.
I’ve had so many ideas to talk about the feelings I’ve had towards various animated things – both on this blog and elsewhere. But I have so much trouble trying to find the right words that I get too frustrated with my seeming inability to express myself, and so I say nothing. The feelings stay in my heart and I convince myself they’re not interesting anyway, so it’s just as well I didn’t bother.
But that’s not true. It doesn’t matter whether those feelings are articulated to a sufficient degree, it doesn’t make them any more or less worth thinking about. Everyone’s feelings are valid, and therefore your feelings are valid too. And so are mine.
So you can’t find the right words to express why you love something so much. So what? You still love that something. It still brightens your day, it still makes you passionate, it still makes you happy to have experienced it.
Maybe you’ll be struck with inspiration and finally find the words to say how you feel. Maybe you won’t and those feelings will stay in your heart, burning as brightly as they ever did. Those feelings exist regardless of your ability to express them, and that’s what matters in the end.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying I love Daria. It’s become one of my favourite TV shows, and I was always interested, engaged, laughing, and cheering for the characters as I watched it. And I’ll miss it dearly.
Maybe I’ll be able to talk about it more one day, but it’s fine whether or not that happens.
I love Daria, and that’s all that matters.
Special thanks to ibcf for looking over the article and providing constructive feedback, and to WHYx3 from the World Animation Discord for helping me come up with a decent name for this article.
FrDougal9000 writes for hardcoregaming101.net as Apollo Chungus. When he isn’t writing about video games, he is cultivating his love of animation that’s only increased over the last few years as he’s explored the wide, weird and wonderful world of the medium.
Hey, I’d like to see you write about Daria!
A philosophical post merits a philosophical comment.
Your value as a human being is fixed, and non-negotiable. Your feelings, on the other hand, are transient, and highly dependant on external conditions which may or may not be beyond your control, and inner conditions arisen from conditions inscrutable.
The value of these feelings are thus highly variable, hard to determine, and not worth much untethered to a greater goal. No wonder you’re frustrated! If you’re steering your ship to port Daria, the winds may work for or against you, but they are not the journey.
I think you’ve got something worthwhile to say, so plant your feet on something solid and tell us why this cartoon rocks!