Remember when people who read books were deemed "nerds"? Almost every single movie made in the early 2010s depicted nerds as people who kept to themselves while doing things like enjoyed. Apparently enjoying things was lame.
Well, big news, hobbies are actually cool now. It's like how Doc Martins were cool, lame, then cool again; hobbies are a recycled trend.
I find that when I am bored, a new hobby will bubble up inside of me, then I will go down a black hole researching everything I can about said hobby. For instance, I was beyond bored the other day, like staring-at-the-wall-bored, so I obviously scrolled on social media for an embarrassing number of hours until I saw something that piqued my interest: crocheting. I decided right there that I was going to become the next great crocheter of the century (if that's even a thing). I ordered a 10-pack of crochet needles, 15 skeins of yarn, poly fiber filling for cute stuffed animals, and button eyes.
Turns out crocheting is not easy. It is actually so very difficult. Now I have a bunch of unused crochet items because I could not figure out how to make a magic ring (the first step).
Nevertheless, I tried something new, and it was fun thinking of all the possible things I could do with my new hobby. Yes, was not for me, but now I know!
Let's move on to some hobbies that stuck with me.
First and foremost: reading. I have been a reader since elementary school when I could read at a 12th grade reading level as a 3rd grader. I'm not sure how accurate that is, since the biggest book I read in elementary school was Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. It's a little sad if that is what administrators thought that is what kids on the verge of becoming adults were reading (to be fair, I re-read the Harry Potter series in 12th grade, there is NO shame there).
Fastforward to my high school years: surprise! Reading is no longer cool. In fact, it classifies you as a nerd, which is the vilest insult a highschooler could receive, apparently. High school was all about becoming popular for me, which was a little difficult since I was a shy introvert. So, this is where I break off my relationship with reading, "it's not you, it's me, Harry Potter".
If I could go back in time and shuffle around my priorities in high school, I would. Do you know how many books I missed out on reading because of my need to be popular? So many YA novels. Now I can't even stomach YA books (I'm an adult reader, if you know what I mean), but I would've eaten them up in my high school years.
Now that I am in college, I have read close to 100 books, 50 of them being in this year so far. It is my preferred form of enjoyment. Friday night? I'll be reading. Invited to a party? I'll be reading. Hit up the bars? No thanks, I have to finish the 5th book in a Fae romance series. I have never once regretted cancelling plans to read, because it is what I enjoy.
Learning to cater to my version of entertainment has been one favorite discoveries of myself. As well as pushing away the embarrassment society has taught me to feel when enjoying one of my niche hobbies.
To put this into perspective, I used to be friends with a lot of sorority girls (obviously I have some PTSD from their judgement). After becoming friends with these girls, guess what I just discovered I liked? Anime. I love anime. And I'll be honest, I was one of the people who judged others for watching anime. I thought "what could be so interesting about cartoons that speak in a language you can't even understand?", and boy was I wrong. If I thought that about anime, just think what these girls thought of it, and use your imagination. To be frank, they thought I resembled a weird incel who lived in their mother's basement. I am no longer friends with these people.
That's another thing: get rid of friends who do not support your interests. They do not have to share your interests, but they do have to respect them. My friends would always find a way to bring up how weird I was for reading and watching anime in group settings. As I mentioned before, I am an introvert, so you can only imagine the humiliation coursing through my veins in those situations. When I stopped reaching out to these people, I found that I was happier, and I lost a weight off my shoulders that I didn't consciously know was there.
I have many other hobbies, but I'll save you from the tangents I would take if I got into the nitty gritty of my hyper fixations, like my favorite anime (Attack on Titan is the best piece of fiction I have ever consumed).
My point: don't let others keep you from your passions. Don't let them belittle your dreams. Don't let them make fun of you for being interested in something that they don't deem "cool".
Be confident in your hobbies; they're cool now.
xoxo
Amanda
2022
