Finding Comfort in Collection: Embracing Your Joy

It’s been a tough year, and as we approach the anniversary of this pandemic (yup, it’s been almost a year of this) I’ve had some time to think about some of the things that have brought me joy. Obviously, my wife and my family have given me comfort but plenty of personal pleasures have made living in this new world a little bit better. Normally, video games and comic books serve as the ultimate form of escapism for me but lately, I’ve unexpectedly found comfort in my collection of statues, figures, and other nerd related memorabilia to bring me joy. Humble Beginnings I only started collecting statues and figurines about five years ago. When I think about how I got here, I honestly couldn’t tell you how it started. I had to really dig deep to think about all the other things I’ve collected in my life. If I look back to before my ridiculous amount of Funko Pops!, the only things that held up space in my life were comic books and various trade paperbacks, which brought me back to my high school years. 

I’m not as big on my high school years as a bunch of others are, but this is a memory I hold dear. I had found a shop right on the way from school to the train station. One day I decided to check it out and before I knew it, I was there every day, after school looking for the newest issues of Ultimate comics or any of my other favorite Marvel books. I think the best part about buying comics was looking for the best variant covers and collecting books not just to read but f…