It's okay to move on from a hobby or passion

When I launched this new blog, Eve (my best friend and previous main reader) asked whether I could transfer all the posts from my previous blog to this website to have it all in one place. I don’t think it’s possible on Squarespace, but also I decided I didn’t want to because some of them were much more informal posts that I didn’t necessarily feel compelled to transfer.

It did get me looking back over the content over there and there are quite a few posts that I would like to house on this new feed and so I will, occasionally, share a post that is from that previous site.

This post was previously published here, on 26 January 2021.

I just thought this photo was hilarious…

Changing your mind is not a bad thing. Nor is trying something new and not liking it.

My bookshelf is littered with books on a variety of topics, many of which I no longer actively pursue. Although I think that "littered" is a term loaded with negative connotations so perhaps a better way to talk about it is to say that this is a history of things I've learned and explored. A cabinet of curiosities.

Growing up I was incredibly fortunate to be raised in a family where my interests and hobbies were indulged, we had the financial means for me to go to a tennis club, a gymnastics club, a trampolining club, take piano lessons, be part of the girl guides... not all at the same time mind you, I'm only one person. But this is the point. I went to gymnastics for just a few weeks, I was a girl guide from Brownies through to rangers, I had piano lessons for a couple of years. The fact that I tried these things and ultimately outgrew them, decided I didn't actually like them or just moved on to another hobby does not mean they were a waste of time. I have learnt from each of these, not just the actual knowledge of the topic or the practicalities of the hobby but I have learnt about myself, what I like and dislike, what mix of pursuits I like to have in my life, and so on.

Customising T-shirts (2007)

Baking elobarate cakes (2008)

The same can be said of the half finished candle making kit in my cupboard, the watercolours and brushes, the sketchbooks and of course, all those books. I enjoyed candle making but not as much as other things and so I may come back to it one day. I really struggle to express myself with pencil and paper or even paint and brush but I do see myself one day mixing it into my photographic practice. And so I say again, these are not wasted efforts. Everything I read, watch, do, it all feeds into everything else I do. I'm inspired in my photographic practice by what I'm learning in world history. My Chemistry A-level is feeding into my darkroom work. Being a girl guide was perhaps just the beginning of my drive to build and be part of communities.

I was already planning this post when I read the following quote in an article in Breathe Magazine:

"Knowing when to leave something well enough alone is emphatically not a failure - yet that's not to suggest new experiences are to be avoided. After all, to deploy a well-used saying: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." But maybe it's enough if what's gained is a sense of: "Thanks, but no thanks - I won't be doing that again.""

Hidden depths by Sarah Rodrigues - Breathe Magazine Issue 32

How liberating.

Others around us may see us as flitting from hobby to hobby, they may believe that we never finish anything but all you need is to know yourself. Don't push yourself to do something that you really aren't enjoying - we're talking about hobbies here, unfortunately you do still have to change your child's nappy even if you don't enjoy it.

I once took a photography course and was working on it for about a year, I got all the way through it I just didn't submit the final couple of assignments, my husband is incredulous about this but the truth is, I did all the learning, I worked through the feedback from the tutor and I knew that there was no formal qualification to be achieved by finishing the course. In actuality, I intrinsically felt that it was time to move on, that I'd taken what I needed from the course (I still have all the materials if I ever want to revisit) and I wasn't losing out on anything (a qualification) by moving on.

One of the pieces I created on that photography course

It's taken 6 years for me to see it this way.

Hope this helps others come to terms with their own hobby history.