Growing up, I would indulge in every kind of hobby I was remotely interested in. One of the first hobbies that I adopted was reading. I can’t really recall how that began, but it sure did consume all my time. Whether it was right after school or begging my parents to take me on the weekends, any chance I got, I would spend entire days at the public library. This hobby eventually led to another, which was writing. 

I had a wide range of hobbies from the arts to athletics and in my humble opinion, I was decent in all of them — or at least had the potential to excel in each one. However, as time went on, I slowly dropped most of them as I advanced through my educational path. In my head, I viewed them as a waste of time since they were “not productive” and would not be of any use in attaining my career goals.   

I soon realized that this was far from the case. The lack of personal activities negatively impacted me since the only aspect of myself I was basing my worth on was my academics. I have always done well academically, but since it was the only thing I allowed to consume my time, my self-worth became dictated by percentages. I didn’t want that to be all I was good at.

I began to incorporate a bunch of hobbies at once by trying to schedule them on a daily basis. I wanted to read, paint, write and do so much more, all while attending my classes and extracurricular activities for school purposes. Ironically, this quickly became overwhelming. How was I supposed to balance my hobbies with my school and life responsibilities?

I didn’t really have a solution for this dilemma until early last year when I was walking through the Arts & Science tunnel. As I was walking past the bulletin board, one poster caught my attention from the corner of my eye. It was from The Sheaf looking to hire students for their editorial staff for the upcoming school year. I was quite stoked to find out at that moment that the university had a student newspaper, and that this may be a chance to explore an opportunity that younger me had always wanted to pursue.

Not knowing anyone involved in the student newspaper, I decided to apply for it anyway and ended up becoming the Opinions Editor. While I was excited beyond what words could express, I was feeling a bit stressed about how I would manage this with the responsibilities I already had in my life. I learned quickly that when you want something badly enough, you end up finding a way to make it work. 

Writing has always been one of my most cherished hobbies. Whether that’s through a creative or academic aspect, I take pride in my written work. I preserve everything from assignments to creative pieces because they allow me to adequately express my knowledge and who I am as a person through words. As much as I value writing for academic purposes, I was starting to lose my love for writing before I discovered The Sheaf. My writing had become limited to discussion posts, essays and prepping for long answer written components for examination purposes. Since there was that lack of writing for the fun of it, I was losing the joy that I once felt within the writing process. As this was happening, it resulted in me feeling less confident with whatever I wrote. 

This new position allowed me to write opinionated pieces, in which I got to choose what I wanted to write about. This felt a bit foreign to me since for a while I was used to only writing according to a rubric or a prompt. I struggled in the beginning with having so much freewill with what I wanted to write. It was also difficult to let go of writing formally, which meant incorporating the use of contractions (to be fair, I’m still not used to it). 

However, as I got into the groove of it, my love for writing felt refreshed. The more I wrote and edited opinionated pieces, the more I was reminded of how much I missed enjoying the writing process in its entirety. Not only did this love feel replenished, but I felt that way too as a person. I was thrilled with the fact that I was able to indulge in a hobby of mine while also maintaining the responsibilities day-to-day life brought about.

I have realized that to incorporate my hobbies they do not all need to be done daily, but on a regular basis instead such as weekly, biweekly or monthly. I can also incorporate them through different aspects, such as choosing a job where I can do it often and be compensated for it. I plan on going to different events hosted by the university where I can practice any of my other hobbies. 

As I return to The Sheaf as the Opinions Editor, I plan on trying to incorporate my hobbies in similar ways as I did with writing. I don’t just have to write off a block of time to indulge in my hobbies, but instead I can intertwine some of them with other interests of mine. This way I can maintain them on a long-term basis while getting even better at them, and managing my academic responsibilities.