During the pandemic, I became fully aware of how few hobbies I truly had. When the isolation really started to sink in, I decided it was time to find ways to entertain myself and have something to look forward to. Even though life looks a bit different now than it did during the early stages of the pandemic, I still enjoy this journey I’m on to find out which hobbies I like the most — as well as which ones just aren’t my cup of tea.

A few considerations I had going into this project:

• Cost effective: nothing that will wipe out my bank account
• Easily accessible: it needs to be something that can be done in or around my apartment
• Solo: hobbies with friends is great, but I’m looking for something to keep myself occupied

Puzzles

The first hobby I dabbled in was puzzles. I figured it was a safe place to start and didn’t require me actually buying anything new since I could easily borrow a puzzle from a friend or neighbor. I’ve tried a few different puzzles over the year and have found that there is a solid day or two where it’s really fun. But after that, I just stared in anger as the remaining single color pieces that don’t seem to fit anywhere mocked me.

If you are a slow puzzler with limited space in your dwelling, this can be a difficult hobby to take up. I don’t have a huge living room, so having half of it dedicated to a puzzle was too much. I kept the recent puzzle (about manatee facts) out for about a week before I finally said enough was enough. I got the majority of it completed, but the remaining white blobs just weren’t going to get completed and that did not bother me one bit.

Pottery

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of taking an actual pottery class but never got around to it for a variety of reasons. But when I moved into my new apartment, I was happy to find out a studio wasn’t too far away from me so I signed up for a class. The class I took was a handbuilding, so it was easy to jump right into. Eventually I’d like to try a wheel class, but I feel like you need to take a few before you’re creating anything decent.

Something I really liked about taking a class was there is a teacher there ready to jump in if things go haywire. You also don’t have to buy a bunch of materials to have at your house or pay for kiln use, if needed.

Punch Needle

Out of the different types of embroidery, punch needle has been the easiest for me to jump into. Now, this one can get a bit pricey if you’re buying a bunch of different types and colors of yarn, but if you’re taking a class with access to various shades and types of yarn, it can be pretty affordable.

I really enjoyed punch needle because time flew by while I was working on my project and it was easy to get the hang of it. I can easily picture taking this one up and trying different projects like a pillow case or small area rug.

Journaling

Uff, this one was a tough one for me. I purchased a wellness journal from Papier and thought it would be so easy to keep it up. And for several weeks at a time, that was the case. But I found myself forgetting here and there, which quickly snowballed into me forgetting an entire month. I do really value the process of setting an intention for the day or a check in at the end of the day to ground yourself, but it was just a bit hard for me to stick with.

I think I will try to pick it up again, so hopefully this time around it’ll be a bit easier to stick with.

Drawing

I absolutely love art. But I’m not super talented at creating my own art. Since I really enjoy seeing other people’s drawings, I decided to take a stab at building up my drawing skills. Out of all the hobbies I tried out, this one was the one where I was really starting from zero. And surprisingly that was really exhilarating. I would spend time looking at different art pieces for inspiration and either try to draw them exactly or use them strictly as an idea. Very rarely would it ever look anything like the original, but it was really fun to challenge myself and see how I improved.

When I started, I drew for at least 15 minutes every day. I stuck with that for quite some time, but did find it a bit tricky to keep that up after a bit. However, I do still draw and have seen a big improvement in what I can do. We’ll see where it goes from here but this hobby really did teach me that it’s OK to not be good at something and to slowly make progress. It’s not about what you can do vs. other people.

Part two?

As I’m writing this, I’m realizing just how many hobbies I tried out or picked up over the year because I’m no where near done highlighting them all! But, for the sake of this post, I’ll end it here. I suppose I can do a round two to cover off on the ones I’m actually continuing.