Rediscovering My Hobbies

It occurred to me the other day that everyone seems to be obsessed with hobbies.

Hobby (noun): a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation

— Merriam-Webster Dictionary

It’s a common conversation starter. “What are your hobbies? What do you do during your free time?” For other folks in their twenties, especially post-grad, it’s almost like there’s this weird pressure to have all these hobbies outside of your day-to-day or work life. “I need to find a hobby” is a comment I’ve commonly heard amongst my peers, myself included.

I do think that it’s important to have hobbies outside of your work life, but I don’t think there should be this pressure to always be improving or engaging in your hobbies, or to always be finding one. I think a hobby should be as simple as its definition — simply something you do that brings you joy.

Personally, my hobbies are usually on the creative side. I fell in love with photography and capturing my friend’s senior photos or graduation photos in high school. This transitioned into taking landscape or city photos during all my travels. I also love to draw. In high school, I took this art class that made me appreciate all the various art forms. I also love running, hiking, reading, and writing (which is evident through this blog).

I lost a lot of my hobbies when I went through pharmacy school. Not only did I lack time, but I was so focused on my career and living my best college life, that I neglected most of the hobbies I fell in love with in my younger years.

Now that I have graduated, and am lucky to have a good work-life balance, I have been able to rediscover the hobbies I neglected in college. It has been fun and challenging getting back into things, but I am enjoying the process nonetheless.