When I was growing up I did ballet. That was my activity, my community, and where I spent all my extracurricular time. By the time I was in high school, I was going to ballet class every evening after school and had rehearsals both days of the weekend, most weeks during the school year.

That’s a lot of time to dedicate to one thing, and yet, unlike a lot of my peers, I didn’t know the names of professional ballet dancers, I didn’t stay up late watching Giselle on YouTube or have a dream ballet I wanted to perform. I was dedicated, in other words, but I wasn’t obsessed. And I think maybe it started then - the wondering if I was wrong, doing it wrong, for not having the type of personality that got obsessed with things. I didn’t do it with musicians, fashion trends, actresses, anything really.

And it’s been like that with rock climbing too. I love it. And I’m not obsessed in the way people get really obsessed with rock climbing. All in. Optimizing their lives in the single pursuit of climbing excellence - geography, career, schedule, diet, partner, conversations. The type that actually can’t empathize with someone who is happy to be pretty good at climbing. The type that dreads a rest day.

Off on another quest to understand human nature better, what if, I asked myself, I don’t have a personality defect, but just different brain chemistry? Season 2 of Buddy Check explores the overlap between rock climbing and ADHD, asking why rock climbing can be so appealing for people with ADHD, and whether even as climbing becomes more mainstream, it can still offer a place to find community, no matter what kind of misfit you are.