It’s just a Hobby!

By Aadya Gupta

3rd year, BA program (philosophy and sociology)

Edited & designed by: Ayushi Rani

Sitting in a sociology lecture and doodling on the last page of your diary is much more interesting than studying research methodology in sociology. Being someone who cannot stop her urge to scribble when she has a paper and a pen, scribbling might be the only thing I do in my sociology lectures (I blame the professors). But flipping through the pages of the same diary today, looking at the small drawings I had made, the compliment my friend gave to one of the drawings made me think, "Am I a good artist?" and if by any chance I am how can I achieve something through it?

Such thoughts randomly pop up in your mind when you are sitting in the metro and looking out of the window channeling your inner Geet from Jab we met. The thought that immediately followed my thoughts of becoming Picasso was that we humans can't be "Just Average" at something. Even when we talk about our hobby, be it drawing, knitting, singing randomly out of nowhere, or throwing the sickest dance move known to humankind, we want to do the best, we want people to appreciate us for it. And if you think about it, it sounds absurd. Do we want to be appreciated for our hobbies? Something that we picked up on a random day to pass our time. This constant want to be best at whatever you are doing sucks the fun out of a lot of things because then you are doing it for a certain validation and not because you just simply like it and you feel happy when you do it.

As someone whose MBTI Type is INTP, I crave academic validation, and I want to be the best at everything I do. But somewhere down the line, I came to realize that commercializing my hobby in the sense that I get appreciated by the people around me or just get a certain "social validation" takes away the fun of it being a hobby. According to you, I could be wrong as well, maybe for you hobbies are a way to find your hidden potential. If we look at the definition of Hobby: 'an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure', don't you think we are already acing it without even realizing it? How it has become such a natural part of our daily routine, be it perfect or imperfect, be it me doodling in my diary or Picasso painting masterpieces, we are acing something or the other in our ways. This concept of "being the best at everything", and the validity of "best" also depends from person to person making it quite fluid and subjective. So, it's fine to be average at what you do!

---