0.02 Concerning Hobbies

When I was young, I never understood the concept of not having any hobbies or interests. The world was so vast and full of discovery, what was there not to be interested in? I understood getting bored easily though, sometimes a game wasn't enough to keep my attention, sometimes the shows on t.v. were too dull or were too adult for me to comprehend. That didn't mean that there were things that couldn't keep my interest. In fact, hobbies were delights to do, they allowed time to pass without noticing, they offered new ways to bond with others, and they would somewhat make me a better person. As I grew older, I found that people really struggle to retain interests in things. Time just isn't enough. People can easily run dry trying to keep on living. It seems dull to say, "When I get home, all I want to do is scroll social media, put on Netflix, or go for a walk." But maybe there really isn't much people want to do after working. Do you think that everyday news, globalization, the A.I. revolution, the Epstein files, the Philippine government, traffic, wars, and Taylor Swift make people too down to find interests? Maybe it doesn't make much sense cause a lot of disasters occur everyday in every life in every decade and century but the world still flourished with interests and art. I enjoy doing things. I wouldn't say I have an obsessive personality but I tend to throw myself into my interests. Recently, I've taken up running and when I was young I hated running. This comes from someone who was in the swimming varsity, whose constant thoughts would wander from, "The land sucks and it hurts my knees.", "Is this really gonna make me any faster?", to "I can't breathe here." Through various efforts over decades where I would vomit after doing 1KM, I finally found the joy in running (It's free and accessible). Maybe this comes from getting older and feeling like my ambivalent relationship with exercise has been pardoned. Or maybe it's just cause I don't want to get a stomach haha. But anyway that's a new hobby that takes like 2 hours of a week which isn't a lot (bar the time spent researching new shoes). Another hobby that I developed as a kid which I also had the miniscule amount of affection for was music. Playing Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Patapon, and any rhythm game made me feel like there was no way I could get good at playing anything, so I would reluctantly push through the guitar lessons my parents got for my brother while I was in 3rd grade, which of course meant I had to try it to. It was demotivating to see my brother and cousin who were slightly older than me, improve at such a fast rate but eventually in 9th grade, like a majority of kids, I wanted to play in a band, so I kept on using ultimate-guitar.com to learn songs that we could jam out, and we were so awful. Even with the ringing in my ears, hoarse throats, and difficulties in scheduling practice, it was fun. Since it was fun to play music it became even more fun to listen to music and to just keep learning new things. Now I can play guitar and bass, and piano and the drums at a beginner level. I think everyone sucks at the start but that's the first hill to cross when you learn anything new. Of course that means you'll get extremely demotivated in building any skills and find your way over the moon on some other days. I believe that everyone should experience the joy and struggle of building up hobbies. There are a billion things to go through in this world so you could try to make something on your own terms. There are many languages to learn, many speeches to write, many songs to play, many instruments to try, many websites and ideas to code, many sports where you throw balls, many sports where no balls are involved at all, pictures to take, movies to make, painting to paint, or doodles to barely give a thought about. The only thing that matters is you start and give it even some time.