Ever since I started high school, my dad has been pressing me about the importance of having a hobby. For years, I danced, played soccer, got involved in activities and programming at school, and have held part-time jobs galore – what more could he want from me? Didn’t any of those things constitute a hobby? Not according to my father, they didn’t. I was constantly struggling with what the concept of a hobby meant and what good having one would really do me. It wasn’t until I got to college that I really came to understand the importance of having that “something else.”
As much as I loved dance and miss it since I have stopped, I knew it didn’t hold the same value and role in my life as it once had. As I watched dance come to play a more vital role in my life, I sought to find another activity, or hobby, that would alleviate the pressures from school and work. It had to be something completely unrelated to what I was doing everywhere else. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to look that far. I got my first camera in my sophomore year of college and was hooked on it ever since. Photography is my way of stepping out into the world and offering it something other than movement. I find it relaxing to comb through pictures I have taken and edit them until I get them just where I want them too. I love being able to tell a different story through a series or arrangement of pictures. It’s a different art form but it isn’t dancing.
I almost fell into the trap again by taking on a photography minor. I was so excited about photography that I felt it would be good to take on a minor. After about two terms of this, I realized what I was doing. I was making photography something related to school. My projects became homework and going out on a shoot became more restrictive and guided by the scope of the class. I quickly recognized the trap I was falling into and dropped the minor. The thing about a hobby is that it has got to be something that excited you without the pressure of a due date or someone else’s governance. Over time, things for work and school become mundane and a chore. Whereas a hobby should always be an escape from all of that, something to distract and excite you.
With the burden and pressures of being a college student, I cannot stress the importance of this enough. We all need some sort of mental break. We all need something to focus on in that wee bit of free time we all pretend we never see (yeah, I said it). It could be an activity like sewing, rollerskating, reading, drawing, designing, researching, collecting, hiking, bird-watching or building model airplanes. It could be more of an interest or subject area you explore and become an expert in like cars, horses, fashion, or the art of latte making. Hobbies aren’t hard to find, in fact, for many people, their life-long passions all began as hobbies. But even if that’s the case, it’s always important to find something else: give yourself that break. Enjoy life to fullest; everything you enjoy in life doesn’t have to be so serious.
