Exploring interests and hobbies during a pandemic

The year 2020 is off to a concerning start to be sure. For many, spending all this time away from friends and family, unsure of what to do with themselves, could be torturous. In the last article, we addressed how this causes many to turn to their technological devices.

However, ask yourself this question: “Will there ever be another period of time where I have all this time to myself in the foreseeable future?”. The simple answer is no, which is why it’s important to make this time count.

This newfound free time, combined with the arrival of summer, makes NOW the perfect time to develop a new hobby, skill or interest. Here are a few avenues you could consider taking when deciding on a new interest to dive into.

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Reconnect with an old hobby or interest.

I am sure that each and every single one of us has had that one hobby or interest that you were passionate about when you were younger. This could be something like creative writing, reading fiction, or even running.

However, as other priorities started taking the spotlight, you found yourself with less time to spend on your own personal interests. For many of us, now would be the perfect time to jump back into our old interests now that some of those priorities have taken a backseat during the pandemic. Additionally, reconnecting with old interests is usually the path of least resistance when planning to take on a hobby during this period.

Explore new options

On the other hand, maybe you once a video on post-modern painting and thought to yourself “Huh, I can do that”, but quickly dismissed the thought because you’ve never held a brush before in your life. When pursuing hobbies or interests a lot of us stick to what we are familiar with.

This is because we feel that if we stick to what we know, we are less likely to fail at it. During this time of unprecedented events, I would recommend getting out of your comfort zone and DOING something unprecedented. Try your hand at something you have never done before and see if you’re any good! You might just surprise yourself.

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Invest in yourself for the future

If you identify as a more rational person, you might want any interest you develop to hold some value for you in the future. Well now is the perfect time to invest in yourself! Use this time to develop skills that will enable you to achieve your goals in the future. You could even pick a skill that might be unrelated to what you plan on pursuing, but you know will be valuable to society in the future.

As a personal example, although I plan on working in healthcare, I am (alongside my other responsibilities) trying to teach myself programming and coding, because I know that, with the advancement of technology in the future, this particular skill will eventually come in handy. There are many wonderful (and free) resources out there to educate you on whatever skill you want to develop.

future, this particular skill will eventually come in handy. There are many wonderful (and free) resources out there to educate you on whatever skill you want to develop.

Finding a new (or old) interest to dive into during this pandemic can really help us grow as individuals and cut off our dependency on technology and social media. For students, this can not only add versatility to your skillset, but it can also come in handy in university applications when you trying to present yourself as a unique and well-rounded applicant.

Nonetheless, simply starting a new interest for the duration of this pandemic is not enough. You need to have the curiosity and commitment to follow through with it, even after the pandemic. What do you have to lose?