Hobby: What’s the point of having it?

Everyone has hobby, right? I think it is.
Then why should we have hobby?

As we know, hobby is an activity(s) that we enjoy doing it frequently in any times like. Something that I am quite sure that it isn’t something to be asked in “do you have any hobbies?” but “what is your hobby?” because once again I believed that everyone has hobby(s). Don’t you think so? Try to ask people around you and I am quite sure everyone has at least one hobby that he/she does regularly.

However, still there are kind of questions about ‘do we really need to have hobby?’ ‘Is it important to have hobby?’ Let’s think about it together!

Hobby in Oxford Dictionary translated as an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure. This word came first from late Middle English hobyn, hoby, from pet forms of the given name Robin. Originally in sense 2 (compare with dobbin), it later came to denote a toy horse or hobby horse, hence ‘an activity done for pleasure’. In its earliest definition according to Matthew (2009), in a novel entitled ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman’ by Laurence Sterne, hobby is interpreted as an activity to an unhealthy degree to the boredom of others. So in this novel, smoking a hookah and setting off cannons are adored as hobbies by Tristram and his uncle.

According to Cambridge School Dictionary, hobby is an activity that you enjoy and do regularly when you are not working. However, I do not agree with that statement. Both in Oxford and Cambridge Dictionary. They are written that “……in one’s leisure time for pleasure” and “…when you are not working” Really? I don’t think so, since the fact is that hobby is something that generally can be done as a work. For example, someone’s hobby is taking pictures, this hobby can be his/her job. So what CSD states is not 100% right in my opinion. As stated by McKay (2016), we should consider to break the rule that hobby is ‘a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation’ because by doing our hobby as a job, we might not only enjoy the job we do but we will be very good at it. We love doing it and we earn money from it can be a very perfect satisfaction we can get.

Going back to questioning the importance of having hobby. Try to pay attention to the people around you, the children, teenagers, adults, and elder people. They have an activity that they tend to do it regularly for fun. Just like me, I have many hobbies such as writing, taking photos, and drawing. I frequently do them for fun. Why? Is it important? Yes. Because sometimes in life, we have time where we felt so bored of doing the daily activities and we will look for an escape. That’s where hobby will take role. In addition, hobby bring a lot of benefit. Besides to relieve stress, hobby build our self-esteem. Generally we do hobbies when we don’t have anything else to do. This can help us to figure out what we will be by what we can do. Hobby also make us become an interesting person, it helps us to have something to be talked about when gathering with friends and it can be a point of connection when we meet a new people. Also as mentioned above, hobby can be turn as our profession. When a lot of people are confusing in looking for a job position, try to be creative by creating a new employment from our hobbies. If we find any difficulties, all we need to do is taking classes of how to build a new business or everything we need to start. However, this should be noted that this might not suit well for everyone. We cannot assume that every hobby can or should be our career, because some hobbies would become suck when it turns out to be a job.

I will take an example from myself. I have many hobbies that according to Kramer (2015) in GLAMOUR, some of them, can help my career. They are writing, playing video games, and traveling. And I think they are. Writing can be my job, I can publish novels and got royalty from them or by traveling I can be a knowledgeable guide for tourists. These are a great income for me but suddenly it turns out that when I am considering to write to earn money, it become really hard. I cannot do it since I feel that I do it under pressure. Besides, when I write under my conscious, it really run smoothly. It might because I do it for fun. To turn out hobby to be our profession we have to be skilled.

Amazing right? From one hobby, we can create job! Still questioning about its importance? Stop! Start to find your own hobby, what you really like to do without any pressure and being creative in it!

References

Beth. (2014, Feb 26). 8 Reasons Why Hobbies Are Important. Retrieved June 04, 2017, from The Pretty Guinea Pig: http://theprettyguineapig.com/16274/8-reasons-hobbies-important/

CambridgeUniversity. (2008). Cambridge School Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kramer, J. (2015, June 30). 7 Hobbies That Can Help Your Career. Retrieved June 04, 2017, from GLAMOUR: http://www.glamour.com/story/hobbies-career-success

McKay, D. R. (2016, September 28). Can You Turn Your Hobby Into a Career? Retrieved June 04, 2017, from the balance: https://www.thebalance.com/can-you-turn-your-hobby-into-a-career-524775

Woolsey, M. (2009, June 16). To Have A Hobby Is Human. Retrieved from Forbes.