A wise man once said, “Find three hobbies you love; one that makes you money, one that keeps you fit, and one that lets you be creative.”
I say a wise man once said it because it seems like one must have at some point. Half the people on the internet seems to have said it, and none of them know who said it first.
But regardless of its origin, the phrase seems to have some wisdom.
Who doesn’t like hobbies? Hobbies are fun quirks about people that make them interesting and keep your life from being dull and empty.
Thinking about your work as a hobby can change an otherwise boring activity into something fascinating. For example, look at these two sentences:
“I work as a janitor,” or “I spend my mornings pacing back and forth rubbing a long-handled hairy thing across floors and obsessively cleaning blackboards.”
One of those people is making money at a really dull job. The other one knows something I don’t about life.
Hobbies can worm themselves into your brain in a really positive way. Perhaps one of the most defining aspects of a hobby is that you think its way more interesting than anyone else does.
You need to justify your hobbies. People will ask you, “Why on earth do you do this thing?” And you need to come up with a good answer.
I guess that’s the heart of it. Why do you do anything? If you don’t have a reason, or if that reason is super lame, then your life is lame. You’re lame.
Alright, so three hobbies. One that makes me money: I love writing snarky editorials! And I suppose the piddling sums we make here at the Lode still qualify as money.
One that keeps me fit: I love running. That’s still hard to say and mean it, but I’m definitely working on it. See this space last week for more on that.
One that keeps me creative: I love D&D. Oh my goodness, my weekends are full of dice and character sheets and it’s wonderful! See this space next week for more on that.
What are your three hobbies? Is your life lame? Am I totally off base on this? Let me know at rasilver@mtu.edu.
If someone actually emails me about this, I swear I’ll send you a really detailed response and we can have a fantastic conversation about this I can use as fuel for snarkier editorials. It’ll be fun!
