Are You Looking for a New Hobby?

Photo courtesy of Pinterest

When I first saw the movie, Poor Things, I didn’t understand what the movie was trying to tell me. Obviously, sex was being used as a metaphor; but during the lunacy that was the film I was too overwhelmed in the moment to realize the message. Now that plenty of time has passed, I constantly go back to the message that I believe the movie was trying to tell me.

Poor Things is about a woman who has the brain of an infant inserted into her head. She goes through the stages of learning and developing, all while being in a fully grown body. As the movie goes, she soon discovers what sex is. It goes from something that she does for her own enjoyment, to something she sells, to something of a trait that she has mastered. Her use of her body takes her around the world, first with a perverted man who takes advantage of her lust, then on her own accord in a whorehouse. By the end of the film, she ends up back where she started and ends her days sitting in her “childhood” home (childhood referring to where her monstrous beingness was created) with her closest confidants in relaxation. 

Now, you probably clicked this article wanting to find out what to do in your spare time and thought I would be talking about how to choose between knitting or crocheting. 

I mention Poor Things because the message that I got from the film is that we start off in adolescence with such interests and desires for things in life. The use of sex in the film is a metaphor of the things in our lives that we know interests us. We are almost born with these aspirations in us (cue the next movie: Soul) and sometimes we foster and develop those skills and sometimes they burn out.

So, what I am here to recommend is for you to spend your spare time doing a hobby related to whatever excited you as a child. When I was younger, before I even knew what Sex and The City was, I knew I wanted to have my own column in a magazine and live in New York City. Now that I am older, I realize that what I wanted was to be Carrie Bradshaw. This website is a bit of a nod to that. 

Also, I loved reading as a child. So it is no surprise that finishing a book leaves me feeling refreshed. Doing these things in adulthood is even more fun too. I now have an adult income that I can simply spend how I want! Long gone are the days where I have to ask my parents for a crisp 20 dollar bill to take to the school book fair. Now I have the blessing of getting in the driver's seat of my own car, taking myself to Barnes and Noble, and buying whatever book interests me. Younger me dreamed of such an outing and now I could do exactly that. 

This isn’t to say that I haven’t tried a random hobby or two and gotten too invested before finding out if I actually liked it or not. I have been known to wander Michael’s and pick up a full art kit, just for it to collect dust.

So, rather than looking in all the wrong places for something you might burn out from, instead look inwards to see what could be the hobby that lights your soul on fire. Younger you has a lot more answers than we give them credit for!