Hobbies

Hobbies. Hobbies can shape a person, their personality, their worldly view, their ethos. A lot of people are lucky enough to make money doing their chosen hobby. Hobbies such as the "arts" are what makes up a lot of our world's economy. Music, fashion, photography, and film. Literary hobbies have given our world hundreds of years worth of reading material, from encyclopedias, to fiction, to comic books and manga. Hobbies are what drives this world creatively, and I think thats wonderful.

For my early years, I was very big into dance. Ballet, jazz, tap dancing. It was a way for me to let go and really connect with my creativity. I was constantly on the move, practising my moves, making up routines, pushing myself further and further to better myself to one day, make money from this. Sadly, as I got older, I learnt the harsh reality that, as beautiful as dance is, only an extremely small percentage of people get to go on and make a career from this hobby.

In my early teens, I LOVED photography. I had found a hobby I could be as passionate about as I was with dance. I would borrow my parents 4 megapixel digital camera and take it everywhere with me. I had such drive to go out and get that perfect shot. When I was 13 and 14 I would wake on the weekends before the sun would rise, and walk to my local beaches to capture those beautiful, serene, early morning moments. From 15 to 17, I would shoot live gigs with my 35mm camera, working with a wonderful group of musicians and promoters from Cornwall, who would actually pay me to get the photos developed and pay for the film I used, because they were that good I guess! As I got a little older, I really wanted to carve a career out of this hobby. Unfortunately, just like with dance, I learned that once again, only a small fraction of photographers can really make a name for themselves in this day and age. And with that knowledge, and some other extenuating circumstances, no matter how talented I was, and to some extent still am, I gave it up.

From the age of 19, to around about now (24) I didn’t really have a hobby. I didn’t go out with a camera anymore. I didn’t dance. And I’ve never been blessed to be very musically talented. I’d forgotten what it felt like to immerse myself in something I was truly passionate about. I became a slob, mentally and physically. I've always been acutely aware that having a hobby is so enriching, and it can bring people together who normally wouldn’t cross paths. You can grow tight knit communities in the form of a band, or a regular art fair, quite literally anything! So I wanted to do something about my own lack of a creative outlet.

After the intense few months I experienced at the beginning of 2017, I really wanted to get out of my hobby-less slump, and find something to be passionate about again, initially and rather selfishly, it was just to find something to distract myself. So I started doodling. Nothing fancy, just small sketches of plants and cups of tea, etc. Slowly but surely, the passion is starting to come back. I am learning all over again what it means to really have a hobby. To look forward to that time where I can sit down, put on some music, switch off my brain and just draw. Now that I’m older, I know I’ll probably never make a career out of my hobbies, and that's okay. It’s much more important to have that one small thing that you can work toward or work on, be it drawing, singing, playing an instrument, or even something as simple as reading a book. Everybody needs their "switch off" time, and I feel that we need to regress in terms of technology to some extent; Netflix and chill isn’t as mentally rewarding as finally nailing that pen technique, or hitting that high note.

Everyone needs a hobby. It doesn’t have to be grandeur, and you don’t have to be brilliant at it. But I firmly believe that we as humans, need something that drives us, outside of the "working tirelessly just to afford rent" that so many of us are faced with nowadays.

Try something new! There are so many things you can learn, and you’ll be surprised at what you can do if you put your mind to it.