When I was younger, it seemed like I was always busy. I was either in school, or doing homework, or playing sports, or reading a book, or hanging out with friends. I was always busy doing something.
As I grew older, my time was slowly eaten away by the different demands of life. School became harder. Homework overwhelmed me. I quit sports to make time for other priorities. Friends became sparse and everything I did was to make sure I was accepted into college.
Now, everything I do is to make sure I secure a job when I graduate.
I joined clubs to write more, I took internships with bad pay to gain experience, and I worked thankless retail jobs to make money. I stopped reading as much to make time for other responsibilities.
Every little thing I used to enjoy is now a commodity I cannot afford.
It’s not that I don’t want to have hobbies anymore, it’s that I don’t have time anymore. I am busy, but in a different way than when I was younger.
Anything I do now has a set objective in mind and not about my enjoyment. If I do something solely for my enjoyment, I don’t think of it as worthy enough for my time. When people ask me what I do for fun, I struggle to find answers that don’t relate to my school work.
Yet, the more I talk about this, the more I realize I’m not alone.
We are in a time of monetization and instant gratification. People pick up hobbies not because they enjoy them, but because it can bring them another source of revenue. They train themselves on hobbies from baking to knitting, only to sell their products for profit.
It has become too normalized to turn our normal everyday activities to our hustle. We don’t do these things just because we can. The freedom is no longer there to enjoy these activities. We turn it into a contest to see who can make the most money or who can get the most likes on social media.
I reminisce on the time when I would sit down for hours reading or drawing everything I saw. I was so passionate about every little thing I was doing.
I made my parents teach me cursive early because I was fascinated by the winding lines. I picked out every lego set I could because being able to build something on my own made me feel independent and creative. I am not sure when that light dimmed, but now that I am aware it did, I cannot help but want it back.
Now, every time I pick up a book, I question if it’s because I want to read it or to meet my Goodreads goal. I have had to make conscious choices to give myself breaks or push through. As important as school, work and chores are, there is so much more to life than just those things.
This constant need to be productive with my time is causing burnout. According to Anne K. Schaffner, a burnout coach and author, turning our hobbies into side hustles disregards the functional intent of a hobby.
Hobbies are meant to be pleasurable. They are meant for us to enjoy and have fun in our downtime. Leisure activities that allow us to explore creativity or just be lazy. We do not need to be in a constant cycle of work. If we do not give ourselves the time to truly relax, how will we ever expect to be productive when we need to be?
I feel like every other video or article I read tells me ten ways I can make my hobbies into a side hustle or how to monetize my downtime. We are so ingrained in a culture that values productivity over everything else that it’s becoming detrimental to other aspects of our life.
People who pursue hobbies that make them happy in the long run usually have less stressful lives. It creates a work-life balance that so many people are missing now.
Being able to turn off your brain after work is not just some mindless act, it helps us compartmentalize different parts of our day and relax in our homes. A place that is supposed to be safe. A place that we can come back to time and time again to do whatever we want to.
Having hobbies can help us grow as people and challenge ourselves too. They can help us become proficient in an activity completely unrelated to school or work without causing stress. It gives us a free timeline to pursue everything and anything we are interested in.
A truly joyful experience is realizing your hobbies are cathartic. Picking up that guitar that you have been telling yourself to learn for years. Leafing through the cook book you have been wanting to try for months. Joining a run club in your city to meet new people. Hobbies have these amazing benefits that we could all use.
Hobbies are a way for us to invest in ourselves. We can work all we want, we can throw ourselves into friendships and relationships that we convinced ourselves we need, but we will never genuinely be happy until we let ourselves be true and authentic.
They are essential in every aspect of our life. They help us nurture talent we might not know we had. They give us fulfillment in ways work or school cannot.
Hobbies are not just ways to pass your time, they are meant for your enjoyment. To invest in your mind, body and soul. When we turn creativity into labor, we do not find contentment with those things anymore.
I want to find hobbies as I did when I was a kid. I want to learn and grow and educate myself because it’s fun. Because once upon a time, I had a passion for something so miniscule, it took up an entire portion of my life and now I barely remember it.
Right now, I want to live life knowing I have free time. I want to partake in seemingly boring and benign activities knowing that I don’t have to be good at them to enjoy them. I want to have hobbies again.
*This is an opinion piece for InfUSion Magazine