Dear Birdie: How to Have a Hobby

Written by Birdie. Graphic by Ana Vergara Garcia.

Welcome back to “Dear Birdie,” a column where I do my best to offer guidance and some humor in response to questions from our college community! Throughout the column, I hope to help answer questions about anything and everything – from class troubles to relationship advice, movie recommendations and more. This column is anonymous on both ends so that you all can have a comfortable outlet for conversation.

It’s been a while since I’ve released a question-based installment, having fallen into a sort of hibernation with winter break and a snow-filled January. Some might say this bird flew south for the winter. This week, I’m the one asking the question: what hobby should I get into and how do I keep up with it? This was a quest I set myself on over break, as I fell into the lull of being home for days on end with nothing but my own thoughts and a TV in front of me, streaming the old reliable “Sex and the City.” What seems like a simple question is actually much more difficult practically. How on earth do we as students even have time to think about a hobby, let alone keep up with one?

I think the first step to having a hobby is letting go of the idea that it has to be an everyday sort of commitment. Framing it as such makes having a hobby seem like something you have to do when it should be seen more as a gratifying activity. I like to view a hobby as something that you do in your leisure time for pure enjoyment, not something you have to stress about keeping up with. Once we’ve got that at the forefront, we can break into the hobbies themselves. Hobbies can range from self-improvement and enrichment to incredibly unserious things, bordering on a comedic bit. 

During the aforementioned lull, I posed this question to a couple of my dearest friends (who also happen to be fellow District editors!) and I thought I would enlighten you with their responses. Boy, do we have options! On the slightly more legitimate side, we have: reading, running, painting, knitting, pottery, creative writing, water sports, biking, coloring books, crosswords, sudoku, improv, sewing, nail design, meditation, yoga, film photography, baking and dancing. On the random, silly side: lying to strangers, swiping on Tinder, fake crying, pretending to understand classical poetry, dog training and balancing on one leg. I can safely say with this as my inspiration and from trying new things, I have curated a handful of new hobbies during my winter migration, a list that includes: watching old movies on The Criterion Channel, making enviable iMessage stickers of bears and Calico Critters, reading The New York Times Social Q’s column, creating lore about gnomes and including more bird references in my writing.  

So, basically, having a hobby isn’t as complicated as this young bird once believed, as soon as you take out the pressure from the equation and remember it’s supposed to be fun. I bet you have more hobbies than you think, dear reader! I hear a common one among gnomes is fishing for gold coins. 

That’s enough chirping from me for now. 

Until next time, 

Birdie