In Praise of Hobbies...
This year, as many know, I started teaching 100% online. I teach high school kids all over the state for Insight School of Nevada, a public charter high school, and I teach six different courses, all computer oriented.
After years of teaching web design, game programming, and computer multimedia (like Flash), I found myself in September assigned to teach Digital Photography & Editing. I had a good command of the course content, since it was basically photo manipulation, like the technique that has become so popular recently and which is commonly referred to as Photoshopping.
I had always had a hankering to take really good pictures, but I could never justify the expense of a camera beyond the standard digital point-and-shoot. Nice, as far as it went, but not very useful for serious photography. I decided that now I was teaching a course in digital photography, I might as well learn something about the art itself. My family bought me a digital SLR for Christmas, a Sony Alpha-200.
It was a revelation. Like many of my readers, I didn't really have a hobby. Everything I did in my leisure time had to do with what I taught: creating websites and Flash movies, for instance. Now I had a real hobby. I began to take pictures of the wild birds that showed up at my bird feeders in the back yard. And I began to enjoy a certain amount of success. One lady wanted to sell my bird photos in her shop. The National Audubon Society posted one on their photo gallery. If you're curious, look at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/gallery/2009-photo-gallery/ AlbertsTowhee.JohnSnyder.LasVegasNV.jpg/view (put the whole address on one line in your internet browser. Don't forget the periods!)
Suddenly a part of me ignored for years has begun to blossom. The geek retreats a little, and the artist begins to emerge. That's the message I bring you.
Examine your life. Examine it specifically for things you've always kind of wanted to do but kept putting off. The more distant it is from your normal preoccupations, the better. Scientists, try art. History buffs, try music. Artists, try literature or auto mechanics.
As a born-again hobbiest, I would have to say that such a move can open interior vistas you never expected. Provide pleasures you didn't anticipate. And if the first experiment doesn't catch your fancy, try another. And another.
You have only yourself to discover...
