WARNING: There is a small part that pertains to self harm. You've been warned.
Good morning everyone! Has the week been treating you well? Today, I thought I’d talk about a couple things from my youth… namely, my hobbies and habits. I have some old hobbies I’d like to take up again someday, though I’ve little funds to take part in them. Habits, meanwhile, are things I’ve changed a fair bit in my life comparatively. My hobbies were almost all always based on the arts, but my habits… Well, let’s get into that a bit later.
The first hobby I wanted to talk about is scrapbooking. Scrapbooking was something I took great interest in from the time I was in elementary school and joined the club (or the equivalent of one at any rate). In high school, at my first special needs school, one of the elective classes was scrapbooking, which I immediately rushed towards. It was so much fun! It brought back fond memories, and it brought my creative juices to a new light. I’d really like to get back into that someday, when I have the funds for some art supplies I’d need/like to do with it.
Another hobby that comes to mind is golf. I wasn’t as big on the driving range that my grandpa used to take me to as I was miniature golf, but I stopped playing slowly as I got older for some reason. I haven’t been in at least eight years, I want to say? I’m certain I was a teenager when I did. Again, this can cost money, and I also can’t drive, so I’d have to take a service like Lyft to the only one I know in the area.
Another physical hobby I used to like and still occasionally take part in is bowling. This is something I got into when I was really little, as my mother was a league bowler and dad had taken part in some too. My mom was as close to a pro athlete I’ll ever have met, most likely. I went bowling last year for the first time in a decade, and finally figured out how to not completely suck the entire time without bumpers: I need to bowl left handed. That was a fun thing to learn, in my opinion.
I saw some kids the last time I went to the park all playing basketball together, and that reminded me of how much I enjoyed the YMCA team I was forced onto my by aunt. I’d love to find a basketball to take to the park and just shoot some hoops on my own sometime! Wow, I had a lot of sporty hobbies in my youth… It’s kind of amazing.
Now, on to habits. I had some pretty whacked out habits and routines when I was young. With my first bipolar manic phase, I slept 3 hours a night like clockwork, and could never sleep more than that. I used to only drink cold water, which I nearly never do now. My hygiene was trash, which lead to me being bullied- but that’s a story for another time. And finally, I always kept a journal- which likely is why I’m so intrigued by bullet journals and the like now.
There’s one habit I’m proud of myself for breaking though. For those of you who don’t know, I used to self-harm a lot. It was usually just biting my fingers or my arm as hard as I possibly could (the marks concerned my family, however, even if I never bled). However, I had a habit of locking myself in the bathroom, crying while sitting against the door, and staring at a sharp object fighting the urge to slash it upon my skin. It was well known what I was intending to do, so at one point the police had to be called to get me out of there when I refused. When I say I was in a bad place in my school years, I’m not kidding around.
I do still bite myself on occasion- but I’ve gotten a lot better at holding back, even if sometimes that means sitting on my hands to keep in control. I can’t bite what I can’t reach, after all! I still think of the butterfly project as a great aid to me, and fairly regularly draw a butterfly with sharpie on my hand, to promote myself to not bite it. If you don’t know what the butterfly project is, you can read more about it here. Just know it’s not just for cutters.
And that’s that for today, my friends. What hobbies did you give up since childhood that you want to take back? Do you have any habits you’d like to fix, or ones you’ve conquered and are proud of? I want to hear all about your experiences with these subjects in the comments! C’mon, snap to it! Please?