Old hobbies ...
I wanted to write this post because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much my life has changed. It made me realize that I’ve gone through a lot, and there are some things I used to enjoy when I was younger that I’m not doing anymore. This post is specifically for those hobbies—the ones I once cared about deeply but now have given very little attention for various reasons.
Drawing
When I was young, I used to love anime a lot (I still do, by the way). Anime was a huge part of my life, especially between the ages of 14 and 18. I used to download every single episode of every anime I was interested in. I even had a long list of series I wanted to finish (I never did, lol). I’ll probably write another post about how much anime has positively impacted my life, but for now, I want to talk about my love for drawing. Anime made me fall in love with the idea of transforming stories into drawings, and the more anime I watched, the more I wanted to try drawing myself.
One day when I was 16, I decided to give it a shot. I would draw something every day for the next 10 days (I have no idea why 10). I drew a lot of things: animals, shapes, and lots and lots of faces. I wouldn’t say I was good, but I was pretty decent considering I had never drawn anything in my life. For the next three weeks, I dedicated all my free time and my escapes from homework to drawing. I have to say, this was a great phase of my life because it made me respect artists so much and appreciate how dedicated they are to their craft. After those three weeks, I found myself in a very difficult personal situation where I had to focus on more serious things, and those serious things made me lose hope for drawing. I don't know if I'll ever draw again, but I know I'll always stick with my favorite hobby: watching anime.
Playing Football
This one isn't completely abandoned, but I rarely play anymore. When I was 15, I used to love football, specifically playing it. I wasn't as interested in following professional clubs and events back then (except for international ones), but I did love playing. I specifically enjoyed playing defense because I was never good at taking the ball and scoring goals. I was stuck with taking the ball from other players, and I was good at it.
Just like with drawing, the older I get, the harder it is for me to keep up with the hobbies I once loved. As I get older, I have no free time for football.
Writing Stories
Dude, the amount of things I used to write and then delete is massive. Writing was one of my favorite hobbies, along with reading, because it's another way of discovering new stories. Once I started drawing, I knew for a fact I would start writing. I used to write stories on apps like Wattpad and read some of the stories there (before it became an NSFW mess). I used to get reviews, comments, and notes on how to improve my writing. In my old entries from back in 2019, I even wrote that “I'm literally George Orwell (a famous author).” Writing was a wild experience back then, but it gave me the confidence to think about something easier and smaller, which is the blog post you see right now.
I don't really remember why I stopped writing stories, but I do remember losing interest because my stories weren't popular, and the things I wrote didn't seem to impress anyone at all. So I closed the page and never went back. If I ever go back to writing, it will be to write a blog and create a page about something.
The purpose of this blog post is to document this phase of my life, the phase that shaped my interests to this day.