When I first met my fiancé, he originally had two hobbies: gaming and participating on the high school JROTC rifle team in which he was incredibly talented. I knew nothing about either of these things. Gaming to me was simply "Mario Bros" with my dad and sister and dancing games on the Wii. Which is not what a gamer considers "gaming." My interests included show choir, theatre, singing and dancing, and reading. Needless to say, our hobbies didn't exactly mesh in the beginning.
After dating for only five months, I left and we were long distance for a while. When I came back we had both matured together by always talking but also matured apart because of all the space between us. We were so happy to finally have each other physically there every day but it became monotonous after a while. We'd hang out together by renting movies, buying our favorite cups of Ben and Jerry's, and cuddle watching movie after movie. It was fun and again, so very nice to feel each other right there in front of us, but that wasn't what a relationship, a full, healthy, adult relationship was supposed to be like.
So, I started to watch him game. And some games just looked awful, gruesome with no point to me. Others actually looked fun. The first game I began to play that Austin taught me how to was "Minecraft." At one point I become so entranced in the game that hours could fly by, it'd be 3 o'clock in the morning and I'd say to myself "I have class at eight. Why did I do this to myself?" The second game was a little more obscure and I have a feeling I've grown to like it more than Austin does at this point even though he still knows a lot more than I do about special items and such. That game is "Binding of Issac" and be warned if you look it up—it is extremely weird and crazy but I think that's why I enjoy it so much. We've moved on to buy the Nintendo Switch together and play and learn "Breath of the Wild," "Mario Odyssey" and just recently "Mario Kart 8."
Learning how to play these games just created another way for Austin and me to spend time together and for me to learn to appreciate what he loves to do.
On the flip side, Austin and I began reading the same books together. In my mind, it was a little bit of a competition because I am a fast reader. We began with this book we picked out together at Target called "Scythe" by Neal Shushterman. By doing this, he got to share in my excitement about learning new things and plot twists. I also introduced him to some musicals on youtube and he attended plays that I critiqued for the University Newspaper with me. He came to love some musicals especially "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Heathers" which the school we previously attended performed and was amazing. He began to appreciate how passionate I was about theatre and why I picked it to become the main career path in my life. We continue this to this day.
Taking an interest in your significant other's interests not only creates another way to spend time together, but it also makes you appreciate each other more and learn more about the other.
It is one thing to know they like to do something or something makes them happy, it's another thing to figure out why they like it and why it makes them happy and experience it first hand.
