When I was a kid I was never allowed to talk about my interests because my mother supposedly didn't think it was right for a child to be "obsessed" with anything and I tended to be obsessed. My interests were always obscure or "immature". I loved meerkats before Meerkat Manor became the meerkats in Meerkat Manor were even born. No one knew what they were and I was always having to use Timon from The Lion King as a reference point but he looks nothing like a meerkat. My other obsession was Lion King (guess who my favorite character was) but since it was a "cartoon", people considered it immature and juvenile for a teenager to be obsessed with.  My mom always told me she needed a break from hearing about meerkats for the umpteenth time. I didn't have any friends because I was homeschooled and we lived in the epitome of the boondocks and everyone else was either fascinated by my oddness or freaked out by it.  I was never allowed to talk about meerkats without getting flack for it. If my mom tried removing anything related to my obsessions away from me like some parents of autistic kids are advised to do, I probably would have committed suicide. I NEVER have met anyone who shared the same interests as me until I discovered the internet. I lived in the boondocks until I was nineteen and then we moved to a "hick town" and when I ran away from home because I couldn't take my mother's emotional abuse anymore, I moved to another "hick town". My best friend lives in Germany.  Anyhow whenever I meet someone who shares my interests and don't get yelled at for bringing them up, I feel like I am an episode of the Twilight Zone.