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Here I am, looking just a little bit less boring than the month before.
- I spent a month trying different hobbies in an effort to become a more interesting person.
- Those hobbies included baking, meditating, coloring, and letter-writing.
- Many super-successful people, like Warren Buffett and Marissa Mayer, speak publicly about their hobbies, and experts I spoke to say hobbies can make you happier - but too few people have them.
- In the end, I realized the only person I was trying to impress was myself - and I did.
My friend is showing me a photo on his phone.
We're at a dimly lit restaurant and I have to squint to see the screen. There it is: a picture of a picture. The second picture being a poster, to which my friend has taken colored marker and scrawled words of encouragement for two other friends of his who are participating in a dance performance.
It suddenly occurs to me how meta all this is.
I'm writing a story about hobbies - specifically, my efforts to develop some and become a more interesting (or less boring) individual. Meryl Streep knits; Warren Buffett plays the ukulele; Marissa Mayer bakes. Those guys definitely have busier lives than I do, meaning I've got no excuse for being hobby-less.
The other night, my friend and I had spent an hour talking about my story - all the hobbies I could try and whether or not they "counted."
Apparently, my friend had been so inspired that, after we'd parted ways, he'd gone straight to the crafts store so he could design a sign for the friends who were dancing - which is itself a very countable hobby.
"Wow!" I tell him, pointing to the picture of the picture. "I love it!"
Already I feel more interesting, even if all I've done is serve as a hobbies muse. Tomorrow, the real work begins.