While you’re in college, it’s important to get good grades, get plenty of sleep and to remember to occasionally eat. What about the times when you get tired of the monotony and want to try something new? My advice is to go out into the world and find something you want to try. If you have friends or a significant other you can bring them along too, but go out and explore your surroundings and find a new hobby. For example, my freshman year, I had my acoustic guitar for about a year and had taught myself a few chords, but nothing overly difficult. I decided that I wanted to learn how to play better and the guy down the hall, Jake, had been playing since he was young and had about seven guitars in his room. While hanging out with him, he asked me what bands I liked and what I wanted to learn to play. While discussing all of this with him, I discovered other bands that I’d never heard of that I instantly fell in love with. I learned more chords and tablature and expanded my musical horizons and now I’m a better guitarist for it. That wouldn’t have happened if I had just stayed in my room and only played the four chords that I knew from high school. I went out and learned new things about my hobby.
Another thing that you could do is go to the gym and learn how to have a healthy lifestyle and make friends at the gym, whether it be lifting weights or playing basketball against them, you will be getting out of your comfort zone, getting healthy and making friends while you’re at it. Plus, once you become a regular “gym rat”, others will notice and come to you for advice. You will no longer be the learner, but the master.
Hobbies are important to have because they also make you a more well-rounded individual. You go from being the guy who lives down the hall to being the guy who knows how to play the opening arpeggio to “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin and wakes up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym every day. You become so much more three-dimensional and a teacher, workout partner and maybe even a significant other. You’ll also never know what the other people will teach you.
There are unlimited amounts of hobbies that you could pursue ranging from outdoor activities, indoor activities, things that can be done with an instrument and things that only require a pencil, a piece of paper and your imagination. The world is yours. Go discover new things in life that make you happy. Find purpose in the things that you do. Find a passion for new things and bring people with you to explore and create new friendships. You never know what you’ll find. So go out there! Write a book, climb a mountain, design the next revolutionary app or just pick up a guitar and learn how to play. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.
