You should have 5 hobbies.

Things I should re-start doing now that I am 25.

Most of my life has been spent, well, studying.

For class finals, for boards, for competitive exams, and now for grad school.

Don’t get me wrong, I love studying, and that is why I love grad school. But casually scrolling through Instagram on a Thursday Summer afternoon, I came across a “reel”.

“You should have 5 hobbies”( I can’t find the reel now and can’t remember the name of the creator, but I will link it if I come across it again.)

The reel described that you should have 5 hobbies:

1. To make you $$$
2. To keep you in shape
3. To keep you creative
4. To build your knowledge
5. To evolve your mindset

At the first instance, I was like duh, I am a 90’s kid who grew up in ever so cultural West Bengal, where pursuing arts and hobbies was like a mandate, the more you did, the better for you.

But now?

Do I even know 5 things that would count as relatable hobbies? Who even has the time for 5 hobbies?

So I truly thought about it and came up with my own list (subject to change over the years, I will keep posting updates !)

1. This will start sometime in the future, but I think ‘proofreading’. I love to read anything and everything, from Dan Brown to Research Papers, from tech blogs to newspaper editorials, and I love making my own observations as a reader. After all, all these years of “studying” should have a good impact right? For now, I will stick to maintaining this blog.
2. This was the toughest one to come up with because I am a sloth bear. My college has a state-of-the-art gym, but grad school is exhausting and I barely end up going thrice a week. When I do end up going, it is the most exhilarating feeling, I plug my headphones in, and zone out. (I know this is going to change in the future to “dancing” when I have the time and the means to revisit it again)
3. This was easy, but I am inconsistent. Painting. I love watercolors and believe it or not, I actually have a junior diploma in Fine Arts(courtesy influence of growing up in Bengal).
4. This was easy too and related to point no 1. Reading. But there is an add-on here, travel.
5. TBH, this was the hardest one to come up with. Evolve your mind? The first thing that comes to your mind would be meditation right? I suck at it. I am an over-thinker and my mind cannot stay still. It will have no calming effect at all. So, I thought a lot about it, and my answer is “Cooking”. Hear me out, I do cook every couple of days, in any case, it’s not exactly a “hobby”. But cooking is how I treat myself on my broke student budget. Living as an Indian vegetarian student in the USA on a tight stipend is challenging enough, and there is only so much chole-rajma one can have. But for the last 5 months, I have been researching seasonal food in Boston, I try to shop smart and I take out my frustration after an exhausting assignment by chopping. Perfect?

So here’s my basic list. But I don’t want to end this article just yet. There has to be an execution plan. I ain’t got the time in the world, I do have to study, code, and work on my research jobs. I can’t paint all day. And if I don’t add it to my calendar, I probably never gonna do it.

1. Blog-writing: I have been reading Medium as an inspo since 2016. I am gonna publish at least 2 articles a month. ( I know you guys will keep me inspired so please clap and follow ?)
2. Hitting the gym 4–5 days a week. Just till the summer. I know I won’t have time in the Fall. ( You’ll know why soon !!)
3. One artwork a month — easy stress buster.
4. Finishing one book in a month ( 2 books a month in the summer) and a new place to travel once every six months.
5. Trying one new recipe once every couple of weeks.

The point of the article is to keep me on the record, but I am not going to push myself to do something when I simply don’t have the time. My priority for the next two years is to get through grad school.

That being said I will place focus on points number 2 and 5. My digital well-being app shows even on the busiest of days I spend 2–3 hours on my phone (YouTube, Insta, you know the drill). If I have time for that, I should have time for this.

Hope you liked this article, and hopefully it inspired you to start looking for something to do apart from Netflix. If this really did inspire you, clap ?