Most people would think that rock collecting is completely boring, a waste of time; who would want to collect a bunch of rocks? What's so special about them?
I have a whole different opinion about the hobby, cause I am a rock collector myself. I just got out of my three, or four years of retirement in this hobby, and now I wonder why I quit the first time.
To me, rock collecting is more interesting than fun. With each rock you find, there's a bit of history of how it formed, where is might of started off at before erosion took its place to move it to its former location.
The first time I started rock collecting, I was probably eight years old, or was I seven? But anyway, the age doesn't matter; it was when I got my first rock tumbler for my birthday. It wasn't a fancy, super expensive tumbler, but a little Smithsonian rock tumbler, came with all of the grits for one batch, and a bag of rocks full of tiger eye and some agates that I can't classify. But this wasn't the beginning of my collecting yet.
After a month after my birthday, I tried out my tumbler and did my first batch of rocks, observing each and every rock after each round of grit. I was amazed, and really excited! I wanted them to finish so bad!
Once the rocks were done, another month later, I couldn't believe what that little machine did to my bag of rocks! The tiger eye were so shiny, I could see my face in it like it was a mirror. And some of the agates turned into a nice red and purple! It was unbelievable when I was young.
This was when my collecting began. I took a 2 liter bottle that was once full of Mountain Dew soda, and filled it with as many rocks as I can fit. I wanted to know what every rock would look like polished and tumbled.
Unfortunately, I lost interest in the hobby; I didn't have anymore grits for my tumbler anyway, so I took the bottle of rocks, and dumped them back outside.
I put my rock tumbler back in the box where it came in, and I stuck it back in our shed. I didn't touch it for years.
I think it was my 11 of 12 birthday when I got a refill kit for my rock tumbler. I had enough rocks and grits for two batches. But I didn't get my tumbler out again until about a year and a half ago. The batches I did wasn't as great as the last one I did the first time; the rocks were smooth and soft, but they looked very dull; I guess the container leaked, which went into the machine, hardened, so the machine wouldn't move. My little tumbler had a good run, but I had to get rid of it. There was nothing I could do to fix it.
I kept the two batches of rocks, and put them in a clear storage box, all sorted in their classifications.
For the last year, I have been the only one in my family that uses the only set of encyclopedias. I would, and I still do today, look through the books and obtain as much information that I possibly can. You would call me a bookworm, cause I like to read what interesting things I can find.
For the last month, I looked in my encyclopedias (they're only mine now, seems how nobody uses them but me) for a bunch of interesting rocks, gemstones, and minerals I can find around the area I live in. I've been searching the Internet for any photos so I can classify them, and know if they are very abundant or not.
I started my rock collecting again a month ago, an this time, I can't stop learning about them! I would go to the school library and get as much information as I can.
I searched around my house for a bunch of cool rocks that I could tumble when I have the money to get another tumbler, hopefully, it will last longer than the last one I had before. There were so many rocks that were so interesting, that looked so unusual, but awesome in a way. And no, I didn't put them in a 2 liter bottle. I actually put them in a box.
