I was chatting with some work colleagues on Zoom a few weeks ago, and one person shared about her cooking adventures during this quarantine time. Then the question came to me: “What are your hobbies?” Uhhh… was my response. What are my hobbies?
Part of why I was at a loss was that I hadn’t had the time to pursue hobbies throughout the nine years that was college and grad school. Completing a double major while also doing research, a part-time job, and extracurriculars barely left me six hours of sleep a night in college. In grad school, I constantly felt the need to progress in my research and to publish papers. I was determined to be as productive as I could at the expense of wasting time on hobbies. That’s a problematic thought in itself; even I would have admitted in theory that everyone should have some activity they pursue outside of grad school for a more balanced life.
I did end up joining a concert band for three years during grad school. Band rehearsals were every Tuesday evening for two hours each week. It was really hard to pull myself out of lab sometimes, such as when I felt like I hadn’t been productive enough that day or when I was in the middle of a coding session. But no matter how reluctant I was when going to rehearsal, I was always uplifted and more relaxed after that time making music together.
It’s been six months since I’ve left grad school and began my full-time career. I’m still in the process of reframing my life as not wholly revolved around academic or scientific success, but one that’s balanced between work, home, people, faith, and hobbies. So while I’m still working on various manuscripts from grad school or am scrambling to meet a work deadline here and there, I’ve been devoting my time towards other meaningful tasks. These include working on a book manuscript, learning Vietnamese, and watching Netflix. I do miss playing my flute and am looking into ways I can duet with myself (I find it much less invigorating to play alone).
These leisure time activities have varying levels of pleasure (e.g., Netflix primarily gives short-term pleasure whereas working on a book brings more long-term satisfaction/pleasure), but I suppose it’s a decent balance of activities for me to pursue as my hobbies.