Thanks for the timely (and thoughtful) Valentine’s Day post, Bob! I love how you went deeper by asking about childhood memories.
I started out obsessed with snakes (and I’ve shared that story in other posts), but one of the most magical things about iNaturalist is the chance to discover entirely new areas of nature — especially when identifying unknowns for others.
The users who do tens of thousands of IDs are a small minority, but they’re the beating heart of the platform. They keep new users engaged, they power the forum discussions, and they sometimes fall in love with a whole new taxon that they never knew existed!
To continue your Valentine’s analogy, it’s like thinking you only ever fall for one type of person, until you meet someone completely different, and suddenly, you’re obsessed! One day you wake up and think, “I guess this is who I am now!”
So here’s to happy observing, happy IDing, happy annotating, and a very Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone in this wonderful community!