The Extinct~Philately

Who doesn’t know philately? For total newbies, its practically the hobby of collecting stamps and related items pertaining to it. Though it looks boring, but honestly, it is one of the few hobbies where not only you collect items, but you also get to know all new other things as you go by. This is because stamps always depict something in them which sooner or later, would tickle our curiosity to get to know something new related to their inserted illustration.

Well, that’s enough for the introduction. Let’s start of with one my extinct pet hobbies. To say extinct means that I’ve once had a good time enjoying doing this till I suddenly stopped doing so . . . .

I can’t clearly remember since when I liked stating collection these small perforated items. Guess it was around grade 5 back then in S’pore. It escalated when I moved on living in Jakarta. During these times, I continued to a more serious level by collecting other stamp related items such as FDC’s and stamp sheets. It surely cost me a lot of money, which meant I had to keep saving to be able to get the latest item each every publishing.

By collecting them, it also meant I had to hunt for items that where rare or those that I haven’t had yet back then. And not only collecting all them, but I also had to go all the excitement of carefully covering them with protective plastics to guard them from fungi before storing them in the stamp book. To sum them up, it carefully trained my attention to detail and heart to patiently saving to get new ones.

But as they say, all good things must come to an end. The same goes for philately. My entrance to uni practically robbed my time and attention to take care of my hobby. Hence, it just faded away suddenly without saying good bye.

And now . . . the years have passed since I last brought my last stamp set. Every once in a while, it does tickle me to start collecting stamps again. This nostalgic feeling sure is lovely. But I also have to be honest with myself that current conditions require me to be pragmatic and use my money for better stuffs now and later. Therefore, my dearest collections would pretty be much kept safely in my cupboard, far from light and fungi that could destroy them . . . .