14 August 2024

My thirst for acquiring knowledge is not a new phenomenon but harkens back to the mid-90's, when I was first gifted this seven-volume Children's Encyclopedia book set published by Oxford University Press (pictured). The book set covers every topic you could think of in cross-referencing form, each topic covered conveniently in an Index. It was shortly before my 10th birthday that I decided to, with the help of a blank A4 notepad, start what I now call the home geography project. With my mum and, my step-father, keeping tabs on me, I made it my responsibility to learn as many country facts as possible, systematically. These geographical encyclopedic facts are formatted throughout the book set in a cheerfully similar way, which meant it was relatively easy to pick up the nuances of each country. So little old me, couped up in old Camden Estate (Peckham), managed to spend the best part of a good 6 months filling up an entire A4 notepad with trivial facts about everywhere from Jakarta in Indonesia to Kathmandu in Nepal. I knew exactly what I was doing. I didn't want to travel, not really, because to me in some innocuous and rather peculiar way, this task I had set myself was as traverse as life got. In between trips to and fro Primary school, my mother's minder in Ely House (also in Peckham), and home, it was a passionate escape. Where am I going with this? Well, essentially, I just wanted to encourage the ambivalent pupils of this world with a bit of an insight into my website header - a 19-volume collection of Britannica encyclopedias. Don't let anyone tell you that something you are passionate about is impossible. Believe in yourself and have faith in God's reckoning.