In the corner of my room, abandoned piles of yarn collect dust, stacks of novels lie untouched and countless watercolor brushes never see the light of day. While my short-term engagement in these hobbies temporarily amused me, I failed to consistently commit myself to any of them.
Hobbies — any activity engaged in for pleasure ranging from crafting to gardening — are a scarce delicacy for college students, whose day-to-day lives don’t often allow for leisure time. The mental, emotional and physical health benefits of hobbies are frequently overlooked and treated as luxuries in a schedule packed full of academic and personal endeavors.
In an ideal world, my various crafting projects and unread books would be long since completed. However, as the whirlwind of life catches up to me, I instead prioritize my schoolwork, physical health and social life. Slowly but surely, these aspects of my life have overshadowed my love to create. In the little free time I do have, I opt to scroll on my phone instead of reading a few chapters of my current book or crocheting a couple of rows of a scarf.
This isn’t to say I never take time for activities outside of school and my social life. However, when I do, it’s rare that I apply myself to starting and finishing a complete project. This isn’t just a problem that I face — 76.5% of the population opts to watch television daily, and 28.7% socialize daily whereas only 16.7% make time for daily reading, and 2.3% make time for arts and entertainment, such as crafting.
However, socializing and crafting are not mutually exclusive. As students, we have access to many opportunities that combine the two. Fiber Arts Club, one of Tufts’ many visual arts resources, is a community dedicated to expanding student access to all fiber arts through weekly meetings. Pono Merryman and Gabriel Currie, co-presidents, and Emily Bartolone, treasurer, comment on the ease of working creativity into everyday life.
“With fibers like crocheting and knitting, it’s really portable so you can take it a lot of places,” Merryman notes. As a combined degree student, Merryman takes advantage of the time they have to create.
Similarly, both Currie and Bartolone find themselves capitalizing on even the small chunks of time they have free. Currie, much like Bartolone, notes that he “like[s] to knit on the SMFA shuttle, and there’s a couple other people who do that too.”
Or, when Bartolone finds herself frustrated with being on her phone, she’ll opt to spend a few minutes on the project she’s currently working on.
Crafting can be a social practice, too. Currie, for example, comments that he and his roommate have been watching “Game of Thrones” and knitting together since being back from break.
In a society that emphasizes side hustles and capital gain from hobbies, any leisure time without profit can be seen as time wasted. Reading a book or knitting a scarf for oneself lacks the instant gratification of watching a television show, buying clothing or scrolling on your phone.
Currie, however, finds beauty in this absence of instant gratification. “I think there is something very meaningful, at least to me, about taking the time to make something, especially something that takes so long, like a garment or a sweater or something.”
However arduous, the process of physically creating something tangible can be rewarding in a way we rarely encounter. Unfortunately, the effort needed to commit to a hobby can seem daunting, especially for those already struggling to maintain a healthy balance between school, work, family and friends.
The best way to foster a genuine commitment to and love for a hobby is to start small. Currie advises Tufts students to not “start with a big project, because then you’re going to feel like you don’t have any time to do it … once you get the hang of [starting small], everything seems much more approachable, and you’ll find time for it.”
Hobbies shouldn’t be treated as a luxury. When satisfied with their leisure time, college students are proven to experience an improvement in their quality of life — thus, we should be actively prioritizing engagement in our hobbies.
As students at Tufts, we’re inundated with opportunities to pursue our hobbies. The foundation of our education is a commitment to providing “transformative experiences for students” in an environment where “creative scholars generate bold ideas.” Given that we’re fortunate enough to have access to resources like clubs, organizations and materials, we should take advantage of them.
Don’t let your academic schedule take over your life. Don’t let your social circles stop you from crafting in your free time. Most importantly, don’t let the pressure to immediately succeed at a new hobby stop you from ever trying.
