just hobbies?

Lately been having conversations with a friend who comes from a different cultural background. The conversations themselves are always thought-provoking, but what is more, I always walk away enriched by her viewpoint. 

One of which is that what you grow up doing, like what we call a hobby, is more than a way to spend time and a skill learned (a very efficient way of looking at it, no?). In american culture, artists are considered artists  if they get paid for their artwork. Athletes are athletes if they do their sport professionally. But that is not what I have recently learned from my friend's perspective, and not what confirms my experience, or hers. Take an example; if you grow up studying ballet seriously, it is an art, and it becomes part of how you express yourself. Dropping it completely leaves a big gap in your mental and physical well-being. It is so much more than a hobby. This is the same for athletes who excel In a sport through high school or college. After all, don't we consider youth the formative age? And are hobbies merely meant to teach perseverance, discipline, and some skill? 

As I get older and more immersed in my mission in life of being a wife and mother, the more I realize that music is a part of me. It wasn't just a hobby. It was something I seriously trained in for my entire childhood. I physically and mentally need to sit down at the piano and create, even though the beauty stops when the song is over. There is no lasting remnant to show for my creative time spent, just the one that forms part of me.



Have a wonderful day, friends!