New semester, new hobbies, new you
Rug and photo by Atum Beckett.
No one wants to be stuck in the position where you’re asked about your hobbies and the only things that come to mind are scrolling TikTok and doing homework.
A new school year is a new chance to reinvent yourself. It’s important to find something to do that you find enjoyable and that isn’t related to your school and work. In this modern day of 5hustle culture it can feel like you’re falling behind if you’re not constantly working on your career or education.
But whether you want to meet new people, discover a new passion, find a way to unwind, or simply just sound more interesting to your peers, finding a fulfilling hobby is vital for keeping a sustainable work-life balance.
Getting into a new hobby can be intimidating. There are the different costs associated with starting out, the feeling of lostness, and the anxiety that comes with trying to meet new people who already know so much about it. The fear of failure can be enough to deter someone from even trying in the first place.
To give you a starting point for things to get into or to simply sound sophisticated at your next party, here are three hobbies I recommend!
Designer Board games
Board games have grown much further than just Monopoly and Clue. European designers have been pushing the genre into exciting lands for many years, and the industry in North America keeps gaining popularity.
Many people know of, or might have even tried, Catan. It, and many other games like Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne are referred to as “gateway” games, as they are a great way to see what the hobby can offer. But they are just the tip of the cardboard box iceberg.
There are historical games, abstract role-playing games, and eight-hour long intergalactic battle games. Whether you want to throw some dice and push around plastic game pieces, or sit around with your friends filling in glorified spreadsheets, there is something for everyone.
In this day and age, it’s rare to find something to do that doesn’t involve staring at a screen. If you’re interested in learning more about board games, there are several cafés downtown where you can play a game from their library while sipping on a pint. The UVic Games Club, which can be found on Facebook and Discord, is another way to try it out and meet like-minded individuals.
Tufting
“What the hell is tufting?” is the question you’ll probably be asked once you tell people about this unique hobby. Simply the name for rug making, tufting involves repeatedly threading yarn through a fabric to create a rug.
Getting started can be pricey. Equipment needed includes a frame, backing fabric, yarn, and the pièce de resistance — the rug gun. These handheld machines run into the hundreds of dollars, but cheaper (and sometimes less reliable) alternatives can be found on sites like AliExpress.
Once you have your setup and gain some experience, the sky becomes the limit. Cartoon characters, abstract patterns, words — if you can imagine it, you can probably tuft it. The social media community around tufting is a great way to learn techniques and get inspiration for new projects. If making money off your hobbies interests you, taking commissions for custom rugs can be quite lucrative.
If the steep entry price is a deterrent, punch needles are a very economical way to give the hobby a shot. Threading the rugs by hand takes much longer, but the level of detail achievable is much greater.
Racewalking
Hiking is old news and jogging is too hard. The low-entry sport of racewalking is worth trying out if not only to be able to tell people you do it.
No, racewalking is not just walking quickly, there are two important rules to it. First, you must always have contact with the ground. This is what differentiates it from running, as having both feet off the ground is means for disqualification. Second, the leg touching the ground must stay completely straight until your body passes over it. This leads to the signature hip wiggle that makes racewalking so entertaining to watch.
Although not officially an Olympic sport anymore, racewalking is still taken seriously by many. Throw on some running shoes, put on a podcast, and give it a shot — you might be surprised with how fast you can actually walk.
If not for anything else, being able to walk incredibly quickly can be the difference when trying to make it from the Fine Arts building to the McKinnon building in the 10 minutes between classes.
