Society frames every interest to need a purpose, causing a lot of pressure in picking up hobbies. Slow improvement can cause a lot of motivation to die in people, and make people resistant to trying new things. This is a struggle that I’ve had for a long time.
I’ve learned through many hobbies (metal working, leather working, miniature painting) that treating a hobby like a part of a future resume can be destructive to your motivation. When I would take an interest and push it too far too fast, I’d lose the point of why I enjoyed the hobby in the first place. I’d upgrade equipment, raise expectations, and find myself wondering where the enjoyment had gone. I now realise that it was never the hobby that changed, but how I thought of it.
In 2022 I started getting into microbiology. I bought a microscope at Goodwill as an experiment, at the time I had no expectation of myself to be good or anything. I just thought microbiology was cool and wanted to try something new. It was very fun running around to find new water samples in hopes that I’d find a new microorganism. I remember finding a rotifer for the first time and the excitement I got. As I got deeper into microbiology I started buying advanced biology books, and bought higher end microscopes. I started to make plans of making microbiology a future career. But as I got deeper into it, it felt like I was losing the enjoyment of doing it. I ended up setting microbiology aside. I felt like I was a huge bum spending all that time on this and just letting it go. I do sometimes still pick my microscope up and use it, but it feels like the spark is gone.
Somewhere around 2024-2025, my dad bought a relatively inexpensive TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welder for me to learn with. After getting my bearings I found I really enjoyed the process. I thought it was so cool that I was able to just make things out of metal. I made cats! I repaired a whole bunch of things like a metal bird and car door hinges. Being able to do this was very fulfilling for me. But I didn’t want to push welding past a hobby. I wanted to ensure that I did this for me, and to just enjoy it.
I welded when it was fun and not because I made some idea in my head that I had to. Anytime it was unfun I would just put everything down and go on with my day. I stopped trying to compare myself to videos online and pushing myself too hard to be better at it. There was no goal, no deadline. I never made an expectation that this needed to go anywhere.
Some things can exist just because they’re fun. Whoever you are, and whatever you’re working on, I hope you find something that lets you find the peace to stay present, to enjoy that thing for what it is, not what it “should be.”
