Almost every student has some kind of free time on their hands. As students grow through their childhood and teenage years, they continue to explore and look into different activities that bring them joy. Sports are fairly common among students, but what many people don’t realize is that there are so many other hobbies other than sports for students to experience.
To students, hobbies can serve as something they use to express themselves, burn time or something else they can focus on. But it takes lots of time for students to build something big out of it.
“If you dedicate time to something, you will get better at it in time,” Ben Weaver (9) said.
Students have many reasons why they search for or participate in hobbies. One of the most common reasons is because most students have extra free time on their hands.
“It’s something that I do often when I’m at home and don’t have anything else to do,” Weaver (9) said.
Weaver (9) plays the guitar, which along with other instruments is a fairly common hobby. This particular hobby is quite time consuming, primarily because over time the player must develop calluses on their fingers to play without pain.
“Like you said, calluses, it’s a big one. And then also just motivation,” Weaver (9) said.
For many students, they were exposed to whatever activity they chose at a young age. Due to this, they often started early and have stuck to it ever since.
“When I used to live in Covington, there was a roller skating rink, right, like, down the street, and I used to live every day, and so it kind of piqued my interest and I’ve just been doing it ever since,” Suntae Warf (9) said.
Warf (9) chose roller skating/blading as her particular hobby which involves lots of consistent practice, similar to playing the guitar. Both of these hobbies require nearly the same amount of training to get better at.
“Almost like every weekend or every day after school,” Warf (9) said.
For many students, their hobby means something important to them. Whether it is part of their personality, how they express themselves, what makes them happy, or just something they do in their spare time, every step of the way helps them build who they are.
“And then after working out, like I said before, I became really proud of who I became,” Gabriel Castillo (12) said.
Students can also be introduced to new concepts, activities, or ideas due to trends or things happening around them in the world. One major example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020, because this global shutdown completely altered almost everyone’s lifestyle.
“As most people did during COVID super unhealthy, hardly moved, because you couldn’t really go outside. And so working out was kind of like, you know, a combat to that unhealthy lifestyle,” Castillo (12) said.
Outside of sports there’s many other options that involve physical activity, yet avoid the competition and pressure that most athletic activities bring. Working out is a good example of this, because it can be done in large groups or individually. It just relies on preference.
“Over time, I started encouraging other people to come work,” Castillo (12) said.
No matter what activity someone chooses to do, there’s always going to be some kind of challenge that slows their progress along the way. These challenges teach students valuable lessons in their lives that often cannot be learned in other places.
“You gotta be grounded, you gotta be disciplined, and you just can’t give up,” Castillo (12) said.
