I discovered to my horror, while at a recent ‘welcome the new staff’ session, that when asked what hobbies I had, there was nothing significant to speak of. If you asked me this question over ten years ago, I’d have given a few answers:
**Reading.** I still read but in bits and pieces. My mind’s been conditioned to read for the web, and I find myself jumping from book to book, as if they were hyperlinks. I now have plenty of books on my shelf that I’ve wanted to read, but had hardly any time to read them.
**Art.** I stopped designing web pages and have given up doing anything fancy to my blog. I used to be a great cartoonist up to ACJC days (where my comic books would be confiscated by teachers), and then somehow while studying Law, things dried up.
**Music.** Despite doing less heavy reading and drawing, I still continued to write music in my home studio for the usual audience of one (i.e. me). At most I’d let a few very trusted friends in on my projects, as they would give constructive advice. You could say music was the last frontier remaining. Then, in February this year I stopped my Jazz piano lessons because I lost the drive to practice. As my hours grew longer I lost the will to sit in my studio, make recordings and figure out technical glitches between my PowerMac and other equipment. I just abandoned the studio, too.
I don’t suppose playing Mob Wars on Facebook counts for much of a hobby, and it’s time to wean myself off these time-wasters anyway.
So in effect, I did have hobbies but somehow they kind of … hob-bled away from me.
I hope to renew my lost loves now that I have a short break before the killer course begins.