With time on my hands since the semester has ended and the quarantine continues, I’ve gotten back into Dungeons and Dragons. I’m now running my own game in addition to playing in my friend’s ongoing game, and I’m having a lot of fun, even if the video service we play over lags out from time to time. Lately I’ve been drawing little dungeon maps in a small dot-grid journal. I find it to be a relaxing activity to do while listening to music or podcasts.

I loved making maps when I was a kid. I don’t know what it was that fascinated me so much about them. Maybe it was because my meager drawing skills limited me to more rudimentary designs. Maybe it was my love of Tolkien, whose works always included detailed maps of Middle-earth. Whatever it was, back in elementary school I could easily spend an entire afternoon drawing maps of my own made-up locations.