Can Your Local Park Be Your Favourite Park?

And that got me thinking, are the parks closest to us really not good enough to be considered our 'favourite' or does it go a little deeper than that? So I thought I'd break it down and take a closer look at why we're reluctant to name our local parks our favourites!

So firstly, the obvious, the park really isn't world class. If your local park is something a little smaller with less opportunity to invest there's every chance that hey, this isn't world class in any way, shape or form. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't support those closest to us. Even if your local park has a long ways to go before giving the big boys a run for their money, it's still important to give them their dues and respect where necessary.

Secondly, maybe you're a little bit over it? I know personally there are parks I visit over and over again and that eventually I've gotten to the point where they've lost that spark of magic that makes a park truly fantastic to me. I'd give anything to walk through the gates of Alton Towers or Thorpe Park for the first time again to gauge realistically how I actually feel about them. At this point I've visited so many times that they feel like home, and whilst I still really enjoy visiting they just don't have that little extra something anymore.

Next, and something I HATE enthusiasts for doing, the scrutiny. The intense, pedantic nitpicking. I guess when you visit the same parks over and over again you'e more likely to see cracks and flaws that your regular park visitors would never notice, but surely that's the point. They're not noticeable, so why waste time moaning about what isn't good and what didn't get done this season and spend more time praising the parks closest to us for the good stuff they do every year!

So I've set myself a challenge. Every time I visit a 'local' park, or a park I visit fairly often, I go out of my way to try and notice something new and exciting that I'd never noticed before. Once you start actively trying to seek out the good you'll find your perspective changes entirely, and who knows, that magic spark you felt when you first visited might reignite and remind you why you took up this crazy hobby in the first place!